Thanks it was fun
by scarleteyes21
Summary: Gambit leaves the xmansion and returns thirteen years later to find Rogue gone, a boy with white on brown hair and a girl with familiar green eyes.
1. Chapter 1

I own nothing except the plot

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Rogue opened her eyes, facing the harsh glares of the sun. "Hey Remy are you-?" She turned around in her bed to find the spot empty.

'Must be in the shower.' She thought as she snuggled into the sheets again.

The two had been a couple for one year, and just last month Rogue had accomplished the impossible: control of her powers.

----_One month ago_------

Glasses were held high as Professor Xavier gave his speech after Rogue had announced her secret: that she had finally gotten control over her powers.

"And I, nor the staff have never been so proud as to call you our student, friend, and most importantly family." Xavier finished, he watched Rogue as he was talking. Her whole face was now soaked in tears. "To Rogue." The whole group echoed his last words.

Rogue eyes roamed around the dining room table and settled her eyes on Remy, who looked impatient and nervous. She couldn't help but smile at him

Later that night she sneaked into his room. She slowly closed the door behind her, and crept into the bed.

"Remy?" she whispered.

He moaned and turned over to his side so that he was now facing her. With all the courage she could muster she gave him a light kiss on the lips. That's when he woke up, letting out a groan as he deepened the kiss. He rolled over so that he could be on top of her, she laughed a little.

"Thought we could celebrate on our own." She smiled at him.

"Wouldn't have it any other way mon amour." He told her, he began to kiss the bass of her neck.

"I love yah, yah know that right?" she found his hands, and linked them with hers.

"Oui, Je sais. Je vous aime aussi." he answered her after a few seconds, his hands slipping out from hers.

His hesitation made her worry. "Remy?" she asked but before she could continue he kissed her lips again.

She was nervous, but happy. Happy that her first time was with him, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

---------_-Present_--------

After a while Rogue got out from the bed. As she brushed her hair Rogue noticed through the mirror that something was wrong.

Remy's trench coat was missing; along with it was his bo staff and deck of cards that he usually kept next by the nightstand.

'There's no mission today.' She thought. If there had been an emergency mission then somebody, not only Remy, would have waken her up.

The keys to his bike were gone too.

Rogue dropped her brush, '_No_.'

She ran out only wearing her nightgown, hoping desperately that the nagging little voice in the back of her mind was wrong.

She pulled open the bathroom door only to see it empty, she ran to all the bathrooms in the mansion. She even looked in the danger room, rec room, med lab, and kitchen.

"Rogue, are you alright luv?" Betsy asked her, Rogue looked like a wreck, and on the verge of tears.

"Have anah of yah seen Remy?"

"No luv, I didn't"

Bobby cleared his throat, "I did." He spoke softly, but loud enough for Rogue and the other occupants in the kitchen to hear him.

"When?" she snapped.

"Early this morning, I saw him get on his bike."

Rogue could feel her heart beat faster, without saying another word she went to the garage. His bike was gone.

Rogue made it back to her room quickly, if she didn't she would have cried in front of her friends and team mates. At least in their room, she had privacy.

She broke down in the middle of the room, he was gone?

He was gone?

She crawled slowly to their bed and laid her head down on his side of the bed. His side was cold, but she could still smell him. She climbed into bed and hugged his pillows to inhale more of his scent.

That's when she saw it, a piece of paper.

Her hopes ran high for a minute. Thinking that it was a note explaining that he would come back, that he left because he had to go and get something.

'Yeah, that's it.'

--------Kitchen---------

The laughing and chatter coming from the kitchen immediately stopped as everyone spotted Rogue. Her eyes dark and wet, her cheeks blotchy, and lips puffy and red.

"Rogue!" Laura and Betsy ran up to their friend. She looked frail and weak. "What's wrong, what happened?" Scott asked her as the three led her over to a chair.

But she wouldn't speak, she was numb all over.

"Rogue, Rogue. Answer us! What happened?" demanded Warren as he looked at his friend who was about to break down.

"I think I know what happened." They all turned to Kitty and Bobby. Bobby held out a piece of paper to show everyone.

Clearly written was: _I'm_ _sorry_.

"Oh my God." They all looked at Rogue, who was frozen in her seat and dead in her heart.


	2. Chapter 2

Clearly written was: _I'm_ _sorry_.

"Oh my God." They all looked at Rogue, who was frozen in her seat and dead in her heart.

------_Reasons_---------

"Oh come on, G-man. You know in a couple of weeks she's gonna expect a wedding ring." Said Bobby as he nudged Gambit's arm. Rumors had been going around that Rogue was now able to control her powers, now the guys were ready with their jokes.

"And you can't steal it either; you know she would want to see the receipt." Warren added.

Scott couldn't hold back his laughter. He put his arm around the red eyed Cajun and mockingly said "Now Gambit, I think it's time we had the _talk_ before you make any plans on marrying our Rogue."

Gambit had had enough; he shoved Scott far away from him, "Piss off!" he yelled over his shoulders as he walked away. The three guys all turned to each other, each wearing a look of confusion.

"Dude, what's his problem? We were only joking." Bobby shrugged.

"Hey Gambit, wait up." Scott ran up catch up with him.

"What?"

"We were only joking, man."

"Well it's not funny."

Scott could sense something was up, everyone knew that Gambit and Rogue were the near close to perfect couple. If the rumors were true about Rogue, then Gambit would be the first one to be excited.

"Seriously man, what's up?" he watched as Gambit let out a huge sigh and ran his hands over his face.

"She's hordin' in on me." He talked into his hands.

"What?"  
"Rogue! She's takin' over my room, mon vie!"

This was the problem? "Gambit, are you getting cold feet about Rogue getting control over her powers?"

"Non, it's more den dat!" Scott waited for him to continue.

"All my life dere has always been someone t'take control of me. First mon pere. Den de guild, den Belle, Magneto, n' now Rogue!"

"Rogue hasn't been controlling you."

"She made me quit smokin-."

"Is that why you're so agitated?" Scott asked, Remy only nodded solemnly as he slinked down to take a seat on the floor. "Look man, she's only trying to help you. She loves you, though I don't know why, since you're complaining."

"I don't doubt dat she loves moi, j'st… I don't know." He mumbled.

"Well you better figure out what's up, before it's too late."

Later that evening the rumors came true as Rogue stood up before the dinner table and broke her news about her control. As the table broke into applauses and smiles, Remy felt a slight tap on his shoulders. He turned to see Ray and Alex smirking,

"Que?" he didn't like the looks on their faces.

"Bet you're happy, you finally get to tap that." Ray said in a teasing voice as he cocked his head at Rogue

"It's not like dat."  
"Oh sure, Rogue only gained control over her powers because she wanted to wear _tank tops_. Get real man, you know she's always going on about having a family." Ray told him seriously.

"Rogue's not t'inkin' about dat kinda stuff."

"_Sure,_ and Kitty hates the color pink." Alex joked.

Remy could feel the sweat beading down his forehead, she was thinking about having a family already? _Dieu._

He looked up to see Rogue smiling at him, with all the thoughts going around his head he didn't feel like smiling back.

Later that night Remy convinced himself that Rogue controlling her powers was a good thing, he had always wanted that for her. She deserved it, the question was though: did she deserve him?

He felt someone crawl into his bed and kiss him; he opened his eyes to see Rogue's lust filled green ones. He could taste the mint and strawberries in her mouth as he deepened the kiss.

_He deserved her_.

"Thought we could celebrate on our own." She smiled at him.

"Wouldn't have it any other way mon amour." He told her, he began to kiss the bass of her neck. His voice felt hollow, and not his own.

_He deserved her._

"I love yah, yah know that right?" she found his hands, and linked them with hers.

He tried to say it, for all the life in him; he tried to say it back.

"Oui, Je sais. Je vous aime aussi." he answered her after a few seconds, it was a lie. He slipped his hands out from hers, the guilt pressing hard on his heart.

_He deserved her._

Remy knew that he hesitated to answer her. He could see the worry in her eyes, as her lips turned into a frown.

"Remy?" He kissed her; he didn't want her to know that…

She didn't deserve him.

-----_One month later_----------

Gambit got up, the sunlight streaming from the open curtains was stinging his eyes. He got out from the bed carefully so as not to wake up his Rogue who slept over. Again.

As he went up to the mirror to grab his comb, he noticed that Rogue's brush was next to his. Along with her make up and other hair and skin care products.

'Fille been movin a lot of her stuff here.' He thought as he pulled out a t-shirt from his drawers. Gambit was surprised when he saw that he pulled out one of _Rogue's _shirt from _his _drawer.

'She's hording in.' He looked around the room, day by day he had been noticing that more of Rogue's stuff had been added into his room. Scratch that, by this rate it would become _their_ room.

Sweat started beading again; he loved her, but not enough for her to take over his life. He felt like he was watching a movie, an out of body experience. Gambit saw himself picking up his deck of cards and bo-staff (the only thing he really needed) and slide them into his pockets of his trench coat. He hastily wrote something down on a piece of scratch paper and grabbed his keys.

Gambit thought about turning back, but it was too late. The damage was done.

Gambit had gone against cops, assassins, sentinels, the x-men, and Apocalypse, and never got scared, but some how he became scared of something as simple as being in love.

He could have almost laughed at himself, if he didn't feel so lousy.

----------_Two weeks later_---------

Laura watched as Rogue came through the mansions door, dressed head to toe in black. She had lost control of her powers, and was back to wearing long shirts, long pants and gloves.

"Hey Rogue, do you want something to eat?" She asked, but Rogue shook her head 'no'. She hadn't eaten anything for the past two weeks, nor did she speak to anyone about what had happened. Instead she decided to lock herself in her room, only coming out when needed.

"Okay. Do you want me to get you something?" It was like talking to a two year old. Rogue again shook her head, and ran upstairs.

"How's she doing?" Betsy asked her as she walked into the kitchen, "Same as last time."

Betsy, Kurt, and Sam were sat around the kitchen table; all three were worried about their friend. She didn't deserve getting hurt.

"If I ever see Gambit, I am going to-" Betsy cut Kurt off, "We would all kill him, luv. I really thought he loved her."

"Guess we were wrong."

All the adults in the mansion were trying to contact the Cajun, but it proved to be useless. Gambit was keen on not being found, he hadn't even been used his powers.

"Yah think he reallah loved her?" Sam asked with disgust, the only respond was Kurt cursing under his breath.

The four sat quietly for a few minutes, that is until Laura began sniffing the air.

"X, what's up?" Sam watched as Laura's eyes widened in fear.

"I smell blood."

"What? Where?"

Laura sniffed again "From Rogue's room."

Kurt didn't waist one second bamfing to his older sister's room, while the others ran upstairs to see what was wrong.

Betsy was the first to step foot, "Oh God!"

There sprawled on the floor was Rogue, blood was spilling from her cut wrist and was being soaked all over into the carpet. Kurt carefully pulled Rogue by her covered shoulders, so that her head could rest on his lap. He gently shook her. "Rogue, Rogue. Answer us!"

"Ah don't think she's alive." Sam quickly kneeled next to her. Clutched in her gloved hand was Gambit's pocket knife, he pried it out of her grasp. He peeled off her gloves and put them on. He tested her pulse, there was none.

Sam screamed for help through the hallways.

"Laura, make her absorb your healing power." Ordered Betsy.

"But she's-"

"DO IT!"

X grabbed onto Rogue's hand, it was smooth, but cool. She prayed to what all powerful being up there that this would work.

Betsy, Sam, and Kurt were all holding in their breath.

"Nothing. She's gone."

Kurt eyes began to sting him; he couldn't stop the tears as they flowed for his fallen sister. Sam put his head in his hands, repeating "no" over and over again. His best friend was gone

'This can't be happening' Betsy thought, she grabbed onto Rogue's other hand.

"She's gone," Laura choked out. She put Rogue's hand on her cheek "She's gone."

"What are we gonna do?" Sam cried out, he couldn't take his eyes of the bloody scene.

"I-I don't know" Betsy sniffed, she looked over to Laura who had now stopped moving. "Laura, Laura what's wrong?"

But she wouldn't respond, she was shaking. The three watched in horror as Laura "healed" wounds began to open up, before her eyes rolled back.

"Laura!" the three yelled in anguish, they didn't want to see another friend get hurt. "She's awake…" X mumbled as she felt her body try to fix the damage. Sam again tested Rogue's pulse, and sighed "It's there, it's weak but it's there."

Kurt was once again kneeled next to his sister, smoothing her hair over and silently praying thanks God.

Betsy felt something soak into her pants; at first she thought it was blood. But when she stood up she discovered what ever _it_ was it was coming from Rogue's bathroom.

"What on earth?" She opened the door; a pool of water came flowing out. She stepped into the flooded bathroom, and quickly found the source of the flood. Rogue had left the faucet running, she turned it off. Betsy was about to walk out when she saw a box floating on the water.

"Hey Rogue? Can you hear me sis?" Kurt gently asked as he wiped away tears. "Yah made us worrah about yah, gal." Sam chided gently as he squeezed her hand.

"Guys!" The urgent sound in Betsy's voice made them look up. In her hand was a stick, a pregnancy test. Betsy could see the confusion in their faces.

"It's positive." Betsy said in shock, her violet eyes wide in worry.

Rogue finally opened her teary green eyes, and looked up to see Betsy holding the pregnancy test up. She felt weak, tired, and angry. Rogue could feel four pairs of eyes looking at her.

"Ah don't wanna live anahmore" she mumbled.

----------------------------------------------

**No Belle, no Julian, but some New Orleans (well, he is from there.). **

**One website says that the new x-men cartoon will be shown on cartoon network (likely) and another one said BBC (really???). Vie means life.**

**Sneak peek into Crossover ch8:**

"_Not dis time Stormy. Gambit wants dat girl out of here." _

"_She is a child – "_

"_She's a danger, y'heard what Angel and Iceman said. She just about killed Wolverine."_

_He leaned down so that they were now face to face "Dat what y'really want Stormy? T'put y'friends in danger?" He looked straight into her eyes. Storm looked away before almost succumbing to his charms._

"_You also heard Angel and Iceman say that it was Wolverine that started it."_


	3. Chapter 3

"Ah don't wanna live anahmore" she mumbled.

----------_Three Years Later_--------

Scott slammed down his news paper onto the kitchen table, rattling all the dishes and cups around him.

"Nothing?"

Scott snapped his head up to see a questionable look on Kitty's and Kurt's face. He pinched the bridge of his nose, agitated like hell.

"Nothing, no sign of him or Sinister. It's been three weeks, and still the cops believe that anti-mutants killed the Morlocks." He banged his fists against the table, knocking over a few cups and mugs.

Jean-Paul shrugged "I don't think those gangs care, mon ami. As long as mutants are being hurt or killed they're happy, no matter who did it."

"It does matter. Look; both Spyke and Angel said they saw Gambit down there in the sewers." He got up from his chair, shoving it violently against the table "And now the son of a bitch sends us a note saying he needs help?"

Jubilee bit the inside of her cheeks; she didn't want to believe that Gambit would lead a bunch of Sinister's crew to hurt innocent mutants. She traced the rim of her mug with her finger, remembering the last time she saw him. No matter what he did he was still part of the team.

Wasn't he?

Jean-Paul's voice broke her chain of thoughts "Maybe the guy was tricked?"

Scott rolled his eyes "Come on, this is Gambit we're talking about. The guy doesn't get tricked; he's the one who tricks!"

"Why don't we just hear him out?" Jubilee asked in the softest voice she ever could muster.

Piotr eyes darkened at the thought, "You want to listen to a murderer?"

It was Kitty that stood up to him, "He is not a murderer. For all we know he was at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"What? Like Angel?" Piotr chuckled; he leaned against the kitchen counter. "You are forgetting that I worked with him before Katya. The man does not care who he hurts, as long as you pay him a fair price."

Kitty, disgusted by how Scott and Piotr were talking about their used to be team mate, got up from her seat and walked out of the kitchen.

"Is she forgetting vhat he did?" Kurt shook his head; he picked up Gambit's note to them and scanned it quickly.

"Ve don't even know vhere he is now. How do ve know that he didn't skip town?" he asked the group.

"We don't" replied Scott. He could feel his anger and hate against the guy tenfold. It was bad enough that he hurt Rogue, but now two of his friends where in the infirmary clinging to life. He never trusted the Cajun, and now all Scott wanted to do was blast that insufferable patent smirk of his face.

Chimes rang through out the house, a minute later thunder and lighting could be heard echoing from the foyer.

The five looked at each other before they rushed to the door.

Storm was looking at the video surveillance, her eyes were pure white and anger was written all over her lovely face.

"It's him." She gritted between her teeth. She made an attempt to open the door and let the damn boy take what was coming to him for hurting her nephew, but Scott grabbed her wrist.

"Let go Scott." She warned him, pulling her wrist away from him. But Scott was resolute, "Storm, you can't do this. Go check on Evan." He gently told her, trying his best to move her away from the door.

"After what he did to him? There is no way that I am going to let that traitor go with out a punishment!"

JP put a comforting hand on Storm shoulder, "Chere, you can't go rushing into anything without know the whole story."  
Her eyes went wide "'Story'?! He almost killed Evan and Warren, along with others. What else is there?" Storm's blue eyes filled with tears, thinking back to when Evan showed up in front of the mansion, blood all over him and his bone armor ripped off his body. She could feel her stomach churn remembering how parts of his body were already infected.

"Scott," her voice cracked with slight hysteria "I have to see him, to see why he did it." The door bell rang again, and an impatient looking Gambit was looking directly up at the camera.

"We'll find out, just go for now." JP assured her.

Scott watched her as she left to go to the med bay; he pressed the button to the intercom. "We don't help murderers." His voice was cold, and watched Gambit response to it.

Gambit raised his eyebrows a bit, but didn't seem surprise by the tone of voice. "Y'gotta let me in homme."

Scott looked at the others, "Why?"

They looked at the surveillance, at first Scott and the others thought it was his coat being casually hung over his shoulder, but then they looked closer.

Something was under it.

Gambit removed the coat, underneath was a pink haired little girl at least four or five years old, bony spikes were protruding from her body. Her clothes were torn, tattered, and stained

"If y'won't let me, den at least let de girl in." he knew he hit a soft spot. Piotr heard Scott swear softly. Evan had mentioned a few times that there was a girl who had powers similar to him.

Scott eyes burned, he wanted to turn his back on Gambit, to tell him to burn in hell. But the girl didn't deserve his hate. He buzzed them in.

Gambit watched as the iron gates opened, he re-adjusted Sarah on his hip. The little girl buried her face into Gambit shoulder, "Shh, petite. We here." He cooed.

Gambit could feel the tension as he walked inside the mansion; it was so thick that he could cut it with a butter knife.

He watched as Scott, Pitor, Jubilee, Kurt, and a silver haired guy glare at him harshly. "Explain yourself Gambit"

Before he could a small voice spoke up, "Remy? Where are we?" the little girl asked him. She looked around the place, she looked frightened and scared. Her hold around Gambit's neck tightened.

"Dis be de x-men petite, remember de people I talked about?" he reminded her. He eased her down to let her stand on her own, but she hid quickly behind him, clutching his leg like a security blanket.

Gambit sighed, "Petite un's still scared."

Scott raised an eyebrow; "She's scared of everyone but you?" disbelief lined his voice. Gambit just scowled at his ex-leader, "Oui." He didn't want to start anything in front of the little girl.

And neither did Scott, "Jubilee, show the girl upstairs. Maybe she would like to rest and some new clothes."

Jubilee held out her hand to the little girl, but she only clung tighter to the Cajuns leg. "Don't worry no one is going to hurt you" she told her.

Sarah looked at Jubilee's and then at Remy, silently asking if it was okay to got with the girl.

Gambit shoved her gently towards Jubilee, "Go ahead Sarah." Sarah slowly walked towards Jubilee and grabbed her hand. When she got to the first step of the huge stair case, she turned around. "You're coming with me, aren't you?" she asked him softly.

He smiled, "Oui, I'm comin' up. Just wait up"

"Promise?"

"Oui."

She returned his smile with one of her own and ran up with Jubilee upstairs.

Gambit sighed, and turned to face his old group of 'friends'.

'Now or never' he thought to himself. He looked around the mansion, it seemed bigger and emptier.

"Where is everyone?" he asked them.

"Winter break."

"Course, can we sit?" Gambit asked them, they all looked at Scott for the answer. He nodded his head briskly, and led the group into the dining room. He could feel their emotions, all of them held some type of hate and or sadness against him.

He watched as Scott's mouth was about to ask a question, but he cut him off.

"I can explain what happened."

JP crossed him arms, "You can? Homme, I think the situation is pretty self explanatory, dont vous pensez?"

"Non," he sighed again and directed his attention to Scott, "Do y'want t'know or not?"

"I think that we should be asking the questions Gambit." Piotr voiced growled with hate as he folded his hands on the table.

"What do y'want to know?" he asked them, he wanted nothing more to get out of the mansion alive.

"What happened?"

Gambit let out a shaky breathe, remembering the detail of what happened before the massacre.

"Sinister kept bugging me t'help him out. After what happened in N'Orleans I couldn't say no. He was willing to pay, and we need de money."

He ignored Piotr chuckle and continued with the story.

"I agreed, he told me dat it was a recruitment job. T'get more mutants to join his group, he knew dat I knew where the morlocks lived."  
"You were villing to let Sinister get his hands on the Morlocks? Knowing that Evan and innocent mutants vere down there?!" Kurt shouted, he knocked his chair back as he stood up in anger against the man in front of him.

"Kurt." Warned Scott, Kurt reluctantly picked up his chair and sat down again.

"Yeah, I was. He told me dat at all we had t'do was talk t'dem. See if dey were willin' t'join." He shrugged his shoulders, "Sounded easy enough."

He paused, not able to tell what happened next. The gross images came back to haunt him.

"Gambit?"

The yelling, the screams of fear, and the blood.

It was everywhere.

"Gambit?"

He could still hear it, could still see it.

"GAMBIT!"

Gambit took in a big gulp of air, it stung his lungs, and ran his hands through his hair, "Dey-dey… We walked in t'de sewer; Sabertooth was de first one t'attack dem and den de rest of de marauders followed. I tried to stop dem, but dey was everywhere. I couldn't do anyt'ing t'stop dem."

"What about Sarah? Is she really a morlock, or just a ploy to get in here?" Scott asked him with out any sympathy for him.

"She's one of dem, Sabertooth killed her parents right in front of her, and he was just about t'kill her too. But I stepped in." He looked up at his jury, "She's de only one I could save, some made it out of dere, I don't know about de rest."

"The rest _Gambit,_ died in those sewers! Angel and Spyke are downstair in the infirmary, and we don't know if they're going to make it or not!" Scott shouted at him, ready to shoot him on the spot.

JP steadily pushed him down to his seat, "Mon ami, take it easy."

Gambit bit his lip; the taste of blood –metallic and tangy- filled his mouth. "Warren? He was dere?" He saw Evan being attacked by Malice and try to help, but was shoved by Gorgeous George.

JP nodded his head gravely, "He was. He was talking to some associates when he heard noises from the sewers, when he went down there the marauders thought he was one of the morlocks and ripped off his wings."

Gambit winced horribly, Warren and him weren't exactly best friends but he did like the guy. "I-I didn't see him down dere." He said softly more to himself then out loud.

"Well he was. He was trying to help and now he is down stairs with no wings. Satisfied Gambit?" asked Piotr.

Gambit banged his fists on the table, "NON! Of course not! I didn't know what dey were plannin-"

"You agreed to help out _Mister Sinister_. What the hell did you expect? That there wasn't going to be any type of fight or blood shed?" Scott yelled at him again, getting up from seat to confront the traitor. "Even you're not that stupid to believe him."

"Look, de only reason I did it, de only reason why I decided t'say yes t'de maniac was t'help N'Orleans. No one was doing a damn t'ing, n'we needed de money. Sinister had it, and if I knew what he had in mind I would never have agreed!"

Scott sighed, and took his seat. He ran his hand over his face. "How are we supposed to believe you?" Scott asked him. Remy could have sworn he heard Scott choke up with tears.

"I would never do dat! I maybe a lot of t'ings, hell I _am_ a lot of t'ings. But I aint no murderer! Y'can de Professor t'look in mon head, if y'want. I'm tellin de truth!"

Scott crossed his arms over his chest, "Xavier is at a meeting with the mayor of New York to discuss what happened."

"I swear, Sarah can vouch for moi." He explained, he wanted so desperately for his team mates to believe him. He _needed_ them to believe him.

"Oh, so you are letting a little girl who witnessed her parents getting _killed _stick up for you?" Piotr asked him sarcastically.

Gambit swore underneath his breath. "I am tellin de truth."

"He is." The men turned to see Jean and Betsy stand in the door way to the dining room. Gambit took a look at the two ladies, Jean eyes held some sadness in them, her lips were tugged upward in a weak smile but it was still the same Jeanie he cam to adore while he lived at the mansion. Her hair was ultra short, and a he could see that she had on a ring on her left hand.

'She married the twit?'

"Yes I did." Jean answered his private question, and then turned to the others, "He's telling the truth, I can sense it. Sinister tricked him into going down there. He didn't know what would happen." She laid a hand on his shoulder,"Gambit did try to save them, but all he could save was Sarah." Gambit knew she must of went through his mind while his metal shield were down, reliving the moments of the mutant massacre.

"Hate to say it, but Jean's right. As much as I want to stab the wanker, he's innocent. This time." Betsy told them, her hands glowing purple. She wanted so bad to stab through his mind, for him to feel the pain Rogue and the others felt after he left them.

"Merci Brit." But Gambit's thanks were ignored by all except Jean; Betsy didn't dare to look at him, knowing that she would go off.

Gambit stood up, "Can I go upstairs, promised Sarah." Scott shook his head yes. As Gambit walked up the steps he could still hear Betsy shrieks echo from the room.

"How could you let that bloody traitor in?"

"Betsy he's telling the truth, you said so yourself. He didn't do anything." He heard the white haired man try to reason with her.

"I am not talking about the massacre; I'm talking about what he did to Rogue!"

Gambit sighed, wishing he could take back the pain. He didn't want to tell the others the other reason why he wanted to go upstairs. He needed to find Rogue; he needed to talk to her. He knocked softly on her bedroom door, "Ch-Rogue?" he knocked again. He knew calling her terms of endearment wouldn't be the best thing to do. When he didn't get any responses he decided to let himself in and stood ready just incase.

Her room was different, gone where the posters of rocks bands and movies. Replaced by a nice layer of sea foam green, the dark colored bed sheets where now replaced with crème colored one. He walked over to her bed and sat down. Her scent was all around him, and he missed it. He missed her.

"Je suis desole mon chere." He whispered.

"Hi!"

Gambit turned to see a little boy stand in the door way. The boy had to be at least three years old.

"What's your name?" the little boy asked him. But he ignored him, Gambit eyes went straight to the little boy's hair.

The air hit him like ten ton truck.

The boy's hair was dark brown, which was normal. But what was abnormal was that the boy had a streak of white in the middle of his hair.

'_Non_.'

Gambit got off the bed and swallowed his fears.

'It couldn't be'

He looked at the smiling boy.

'Could it?'

"De name's Gambit." He had tons of questions floating around his head. The boy didn't look like him much, except for the dark color hair and the shape of his face. Maybe he took more of Rogue's features?

'No,' Gambit thought 'Rogue doesn't have blue eyes.' It occurred him that if it wasn't for his mutation, he _could_ have blue eyes.

"What's y'name?" he asked the little boy, he squatted down to so that they were eye level to each other.

"Nate!" the boy yelled in exuberance "I'm three!" Nate held up three little chubby fingers to Gambit's face.

'That answered my next question.'

Nate kept on talking. "That makes me a big boy! I have a little sister, she's brand new!"

Gambit felt his chest tighten, Rogue had another child? By another man?

"Are you a friend of Oli?"

Gambit arched his eyebrows, "Who's Oli?" he asked gently, masking the pain.

"Oli is my bestest friend, he has yo-"

"Nate!" Kitty jogged up behind the three year old; when she got to him she walked him to another room.

"Why don't you visit your little sister? Make sure she's okay." She opened the door to the nursery to let him in.

"Okay!"

Kitty let out a breath of fear, Nate almost let it slipped. She thanked the professor for not installing sound proof doors.

"Who's Oli?" Gambit asked her, standing up and leaning against the door frame of Rogue's room. Kitty didn't turn around; she needed collect herself and figure out how to talk to her old friend.

"Oli is just a student here, the two are like brothers." She knew she didn't have to worry about his empathy picking up on emotions, she was telling the truth.

"Oh, thought it was that silver haired homme."

Kitty shook her head, "No, that would be JP."

They stood awkwardly in the hall way for a few minutes. She studied him, the changes that he had underwent through the three years he was gone. He looked so old; his clothes were ragged and torn. He had grown his hair out and had a light beard .His voice sounded so deep and his accent had grown heavier, along with sadness in his voice.

"Kitty, who's Nate pere?"

"What?" the color on her face was beginning to drain.

"Who's his fat'er?" he repeated again.

"You-You think that's Rogue's kid?" she laughed half relieved and half nervously. "That's Scott and Jean's kid."

"Qui?"

She nodded smiling, and began to lead him down the hall to her room. "Jean found out she was pregnant when she was three months in. We were all surprised."

Gambit knew she was telling the truth 'That explains the wedding ring'. But something was still bothering him. "Petite, den what's wit' de hair?"

"We don't know, he was born like that. "

Gambit breathed out in relief, so Rogue didn't have a child.

"Dieu de remerciement"

She took a seat by her desk, "Gambit, listen I-"

"Where's Rogue?" he cut her off. Kitty's eyes widened in surprise, she could see the fear in his eyes when he thought that Nate was Rogue's son, and she could still see the fear in his eyes. 'He misses her'

"She's-she's not here."

"Den where is she?" his patients was wearing thin. He needed to see her otherwise….

"Gambit I-" She stopped talking when he cupped his hands around her face and made her look directly at him, into his eyes. "Petite, where is Rogue?" he bit off his words one at a time.

She was about to tell him, she was about to tell him everything that had happened to Rogue and the pain he caused her.

Kitty could feel herself falling into his hypnotic eyes, about to drown in seas of red and black. But she pulled herself out at the last minute, her promise and friendship to Rogue was a hell of a lot stronger then Gambit's charms.

Kitty pushed him back, breaking the spell he had over her. She decided to give the short answer. "She went with Logan, Laura, and Kendall to Japan for winter break."

"Kendall," he smiled sadly remembering Storm and Logan's little girl "How is she?" She was a year old when Remy left the mansion, and head over heel for the Cajun. When Kendall couldn't be with her parents she wanted to be with 'Emmy'. Kitty picked up a picture of the young girl and passed it to Gambit.

"She's starting to act like Mr. Logan now." She smiled; she crossed her legs together and took a breath of courage. "She misses you, we all do. Gambit, when are you coming back home?"

"After what happened petite I don't t'ink I got any right in calling dis place maison anymore."

He started to walk out from her room, but then peeled off a picture from Kitty's dresser mirror.

And she knew which photo he decided to peel off. 'CRUD!'

"Who dis be Chaton?" he held up the picture.

Kitty stood nervously by her desk, clutching the table out of fear of Gambit and anger at herself, knowing if she let go she would fall.

"Just a couple of kids, no biggie."

"Just a couple of kids y'decided t'tape on y'mirror?" Gambit knew Kitty would usually tape pictures of her family or team mates she considered family. So who were these kids?

Kitty nodded her head a little to fast for her liking

He knew she was lying, but chose to ignore it. "Gamins jolis." Gambit took a closer look at the kids in the picture. Twin brother and sister by the looks of it, hugging each other and wearing huge sunglasses and hats. They had to be two years old, at least. The girl twin had a huge smile plastered on her face, her green eyes sparkled with innocence, and her sunglasses were on the tip of her nose. Her brother though had his sunglasses firmly in place and holding them tightly as if someone would snatch it away from him; his hat was covering a good part of his head so the only part of his face Gambit or anyone else could see was below his eyes.

Gambit could feel his heart lunge out. He had seen his brother and cousins all get married and start families of their own down in New Orleans. It made him envious.

"Gambit?"

He studied the picture, wishing that he didn't leave Rogue, that she was here now, that he could have his own family to come home too. Who ever said that men didn't have biological clocks was dead wrong.

"Gambit, are you alright?"

Cause his was going off like a ticking time bomb.

He taped the picture back to the mirror, "Vraiment je suis pas mal."

Kitty looked up at him; she didn't understand a word he had said but he looked more collected. She took it as a good sign.

"I gotta go." He was half out when he felt Kitty pulling him back in.

"Gambit."

He looked down at the young girl, "Qui?" he sighed. He didn't have time for her.

"Gambit, I need to tell you something."

She was serious.

"What is it?"

She was contemplating whether or not to tell him. He could tell, he could see her fingernails digging into her forarm. "Kitty, Ce qui est cela?"

"I wasn't suppose to tell you but those-"

"Ahem." The two spun around to see Piotr stand in front the door way, his eyes were dark and his face contorted in anger.

"Sarah wants to see you." He told Gambit.

Gambit turned to Kitty, wanting to know what she wanted to say. But now her head was hung low, he knew she would never tell him now.

'Merde.'

"Merci Piotr" Piotr watched the Cajun walked past him and head down stairs, out of ear shot and out of sight.

"What the hell do you think you were about to do?" he asked her menacingly, but softly. Kitty didn't answer him; she chose to sit down on her bed.

"Rogue trusted you not to tell him, and you were about to disobey that trust?" Over the years he had become very over protective of Rogue.

"He saw the photo; he has a right to know Pete!" Kitty yelled him. Piotr peeled of the picture from the mirror, Rogue had told all of them to hide all the photos. What kind of stunt was Kitty trying to pull?

"No, he does not." He threw the picture at Kitty, "Hide it, now Katya."

He slammed the door, and left Kitty weeping into her pillow.

Gambit peeked through the kitchen to see Jubilee giving Nate and Sarah a bowl of ice cream. She looked so happy and relaxed.

'She don't need me no more' His hand was twisting the door knob; he was all ready to leave when…her little voice filled his mind.

_Promise?_

He sighed and shut the door, he already broke a few hearts around the mansion, and he didn't need to break another. Even though he and Sarah had only been together for a month he thought of her as his daughter. The only one he would probably ever have.

"YOU!"

Gambit turned around and then felt his back shove violently against the door. The door knobs grinding into his back

He opened his eyes to see a blond blue eyed man in front of him; holding him by his shirt.

"What the hell are yah doin' here?" the man asked him, his fist raised and ready to punch Gambit out.

"Sam?" It couldn't be, Sam was now his height and a lot more buff looking.

"Answer meh Cajun."

"Came here t'talk t' Rogue." He smirked, trying to irritate the southerner.

It worked.

"Wrong answer." He punched Gambit square in the mouth. 'Homme been workin' out.' The impact was strong and made Gambit hit the back of his head on the door rather hard.

He wiped the trickle of blood that was going down his mouth.

"Dat de best y'got?"

Sam punched him in the gut this time.

"Yah shouldn't have come back." He punched him in the gut again, Gambit could take the guy down in a heart beat, but he was tired of fighting. Tired of everything. He collapsed to the grown.

Sam wasn't finished with him yet; he was ready to kick him when he felt something stab him behind his leg. He looked to find a bony spike sticking out of his left leg.

"DAMN IT!" He went down as he felt the pain intensify.

"DON'T TOUCH REMY!" Sarah screamed at him, she had heard the fight and witnessed Gambit getting punched by Sam. She didn't want another person she loved get hurt again.

"Sarah," he choked out "its okay." He struggled to get up; his energy was so low he doubted that he could charge a scrap of paper.

The remaining X-men stood behind them, trying to help Sam stand up. "Listen petite un, I have t'leave." He kneeled down in front of her.

"Okay, can I borrow a coat before we leave? It's cold outside."

Gambit shook his head, "Non, _I'm_ leavin' y'stayin' here."

Sarah eyes start tearing as soon as the words left his mouth. "No, I want to go with you!" She wrapped her arms carefully around his neck so to not stick him with her spikes. "Please, I'll be good, I won't cry. I promise, just let me go with you." He could feel her tears against his neck.

He was breaking her heart.

He moved her arms off of him and took her small hands and let them cup his face. "I need y' to be safe Sarah."

"But you're the one who protects me, remember?"

"Look b'hind you."

She craned her head to see most of the X-men who had stayed in for winter break behind her.

"See, dose people, dey'll protect you because dey love you." She started to sob. Gambit moved her hands away from his face, remembering what he did to make her cheer up the first time they were together.

"Hey," he whispered to her "Y'want t'see a magic trick?" He waved his hands in the air for a moment to show that there was nothing in his hands. Sarah let out a giggle. While the rest rolled their eyes, but they didn't matter, it was only _them _right now.

Gambit shook his sleeves, and went behind her ear to reveal a small card.

"Wow." She clapped her hands together.

"If y'ever have t'reach moi den send moi a letter." He handed her the small card that had only an address printed on it.

"Okay." She mumbled, the magic trick only distracted her from what was really happening for only a minute.

"Be a good girl for moi?"

"Promesse." She said in an impeccable French accent.

He kissed her forehead, "Dat's my girl."

Before he left he sent out a telepathic message to Jean and Betsy.

_Protect her for me. _

"You can count on it Remy." Jean and rest watched him walk past the mansion's gate, and out of their lives… again.

_Chiisagatagun, __Japan_….

"Mama looks what Oli did!" Bekka showed her mother the cut on her arm her twin brother had caused her.

"It was an accident!" Oli screamed from the distance.

Rogue examined the scratch on he daughter's arm. At the age of three her daughter had a knack of acting like a drama queen at times.

No thanks to Jubilee and Kitty

"Hmm, maybah weh need tah see the doctor."

"Doctor?" she watched as her daughter's green eyes widened in fear.

"Yep, yah probablah need a shot."

"No, it's just a scratch. I'm all better now. Thanks mama." She ran back to play with Kendall and Oliver.

Rogue smiled at herself, she loved being a mother. At the end of the day after school, work, and DR Sessions all she needed to make herself feel better was to spend time with her children.

She continued to watch them, now the tykes were messing around with Laura.

"Poor kid, they're gonna wipe her out." Rogue almost jumped at the sound of Logan's voice.

He handed her a mug of herbal tea. "Thanks."

For awhile the two just sat and watched the kids play with Laura in the backyard of Logan's friends Yuri Oyama and Mariko Yashida. The Japanese countryside was beautiful; the backyard was covered with fallen cherry blossoms and decorated with beautiful botanic flowers.

Logan cleared his throat, he had rehearsed what he was going to say a millions times. But knew it was no use.

"You know one day Oliver and Bekka are gonna want to know who their father is."

She watched him from the corner of her eyes, "Blunt aint we?"

"Look, I can understand being mad at Gumbo, but not telling him he has kids. No one deserves that."

Rogue didn't answer him. She had this conversation before, with just about everyone in the mansion more than once.

"And what about Oliver?" he asked her, "Don't you think that the kid's gonna get suspicious about where he got his-"

"Ah know Logan!"

"No you don't, otherwise you wouldn't be here. You would be lookin' for the Cajun."

They kept the shouts low so that the kids wouldn't hear them.

"They got no daddah. They got onlah meh. That's all they evah need." She drew her knees to her chest hugging them and went back to watching her kids play.

"Rogue, he deserves to know." He didn't like sticking up for the Remy, but the guy needed to know he was a father.

"And mah kids deserved to get hurt? Ah don't think so Logan. All that man was able tah do was hurt people." Her eyes began to sting with tears; the pain that Remy had caused her was still fresh. After all these years.

Logan knew when to give up; he sighed and went to move closer to the girl he considered a little sister. She allowed him to put his arms around her as her tears soaked his shirt.

"Ah hate him Logan." She mumbled into his shoulder.

He watched as the kids continued to play and laugh, and hoped that one day Oliver and Bekka wouldn't have to go through the pain that Rogue was going through.

"I know kid, I know."

----------------------------

**Thanks everyone. Marvel Inc owns Oliver, Rebecca (X-men the end), and Kendall (What if). **

**X-men #204 cover: It's a Romy cover; you think it looks sweet until you remember and notice a few things. 1) Rogue is addicted to absorbing and has her bare hand by Gambit's face. 2) Gambit is a marauder and is holding a charged card right behind Rogue's head. **

**Yeah, that's a happy couple. :-p **


	4. Chapter 4

"Ah hate him Logan." She mumbled into his shoulder.

He watched as the kids continued to play and laugh, and hoped that one day Oliver and Bekka wouldn't have to go through the pain that Rogue was going through.

"I know kid, I know."

----------10 YEARS LATER-------------

_New Orleans, Louisiana…_

In the rejuvenated part of the French Quarters of New Orleans, Remy Lebeau enjoyed the view from his apartment/office. He had lived here for the last ten years as a private investigator, along with the rest of his partners/roommates.

It was quiet an afternoon at home, for now.

He leaned back on the balcony as he watched through the clear sliding door for his roommates.

'Count down to Johnny boy waking up right about now. 3, 2, 1...' He looked up and sure enough Johnny Blaze came into sight, wearing a grungy white t-shirt and boxers with his blond hair sticking up in weird directions.

"Well look who it is, Ol'Johnny boy finally got up." Remy joked in a loud booming voice. He looked down at the watch on his wrist, "N' it's only one forty-five in de afternoon!" He knew the reason for his roommate sleep in was because Johnny worked at night and partied in the morning.

"Gambit, Shut up." Johnny walked to the kitchen to get some aspirin for his throbbing head.

"Not my fault dat de famous Johnny Blaze gotta work late." He chuckled as he followed him into the kitchen.

"That's not it, I got a girl in there, so shut up." He chased down two pills with a glass of something that looked like coke.

"Dieu, Y'brought a fille here!? Frank is gonna kick y'sorry little ass out of here!"

Johnny just wiped his mouth "What Frankie doesn't know wont kill him."

"Yeah, he'll just kill you." Said a voice, they looked up to their other room mate. Kevin walked in, already back from his latest kill and covered with 'dust' all over his leather duster.

"Vamps got you good dis time Blade." The dust was all over his hair.

Kevin chose to ignore him, "You know how Frank feels about people in here Rider."

Groaning loudly John collapsed onto the living room chair, "For the love of God, what the hell is she gonna find in there? Aint like she's snooping around the damn room."

"Yeah, well y'better get out of here mon ami. Before Punisher gets y'skin." Remy advised him.

The door to their apartment slammed wide opened, making all three men jump and ready to fight.

"Aren't we jumpy?"

Standing in front of the door way was Frank Castle and Lucas Bishop back from their night and early morning rounds around the city. Looking dark and intimidating, with their guns right at their sides (the two had a love for weapons of any kind) and the air around them indifferent.

"Damn it Lucas! Don't y'all ever open the damn door with your freaking keys?" Johnny practically fell off the sofa when the door slammed.

"Well it looks like everyone's here, we gotta leave. Now. So get ready." Ordered Frank as he walked into his office and started to pack.

"Qui? Where are we goin'?" Remy took a seat backwards on one of the chairs in the living room. Usually Frank gave them a day or so to get ready for a mission, unless it was a die hard type.

Bishop answered him as he packed his bags "New York."

"What's in New York?"

"The mutant registration act fight is over now; I gotta go up north to see some people."

"Why do we have to go if it's your problem?" Blade asked as he played absently with his knives.

Punisher chuckled "You really think I'm leaving you boys to goof off while I'm gone?"

"We're not damn kids Frank; we may not be getting AARP letters like you but we're old enough to watch over the freakin' office!"

Remy nodded his head in agreement with Johnny; the youngest of the guys in the group was Remy at 34 years old.

Frank crossed his arms, taking in what was being said into consideration. "You have a point, maybe you guys could-"

"Johnny?" in walked in a perky looking red head, wearing one of Johnny's t-shirts that hit mid thigh.

Frank eyes snapped to Johnny, "Then again maybe not," he threw a backpack to the blond biker "Pack up, we leave in two hours."

_Avengers HQ, Upper Manhattan NY_...

"Why couldn't we have just taken the damn plane?" Johnny asked as he shook his hair that had been matted by his helmet after three days of riding non-stop to New York.

"And have Bishop and Gambit pulled by airport security? I don't think so Rider." Replied Punisher as he and Bishop got out of the car parked right outside the gates of the Avengers Mansion.

"Easy for y'to say! Rider, Blade, and I were de one ridin' on our damn bikes! Y'all got t'ride in de car!" Gambit pulled over towards the car and set the brakes on his motor bike.

"Aww, did the little Cajun get tired riding?"

After three days of non stop driving in the scorching heat and chocking to death on car exhaust fumes the last thing Gambit need was Bishop getting in his face.

"Y'callin' moi little? Homme, I wouldn't be speakin' if I were you."

Bishop turned slightly red as Blade and Rider laughed at his expense. "You all think that's funny?" he growled at the two.

"Yes." The two replied in unison trying to stifle the laughs.

Frank just shook his head in disbelief, 'What a team.'

"Listen up, I gotta go in, I want you guys to go to and hit the motel for now. I'll come back after a couple of hours." He handed Remy a card with the motel's name and address on it.

"Why can't we just stay here?" Blade pointed to the Avenger's mansion.

"Cause they just got back a few team mates, they don't have enough room to support us now."

"But-?"

"No buts, I'll be back in a couple of hours." He walked through the gates and into the mansion, leaving the rest of the guys standing with a dumbfounded look on their faces.

"No! Oh hell no! There is no way that man dragged us up here to let us stay in some cheap ass motel!" Blade yelled, his vampire teeth showing how pissed he really was.

"I'm with you on this one." Bishop leaned backed against the car "But where else can we go?"

Johnny watched as Remy flipped the card in his hand a couple of times, "Now I _know _you have some idea in what to do."

"Know a place we can stay." Remy told them.

"Where?"

"Not far from here, I'll lead de way." He and the rest got on their bikes and car.

'Just hope that they can let me in' he thought as drove.

_Xavier Mansion_…

"Come on Jay, pass the ball!"

Jay craned his neck to the side to see if any of his team mates were close enough to pass the ball.

He hated no powers basket ball games.

"Jay, over here!" David was the closest; he passed the ball to him.

The ball went nicely in the net.

"Wooh! That's twelve to six." Nezhno pointed out, "Laura's team loses."

David's team huddled together to celebrate their small victory.

"Laura what is it?" Julian asked as he watched her ears start moving.

"I hear bikes, and they're coming this way."

"Oh come on X, face it your team lost. Don't try to hide it." Cessily taunted.

"I'm not lying!" her claws shot out.

David was quick to respond as team leader, "Jay, fly up. See if you can find anything."

"On it."

Jay flew up in the air looking beyond the horizon to see if X was telling the truth.

"You see anything?" he heard from below.

"No, there's noth-, wait." He could see something coming up, but it just looked like a blur with the sweltering heat making it hard to see.

He blinked a couple of times and wiped the sweat that was trickling into his eyes. Yep, X was right.

He flew down to report, "There're four bikes coming this way."

"Did you see who they were?" Sooraya asked.

"No, they're still kinda far."

The team turned to David wondering, what to do next, "We better warn Cyclops."

"Xavier Institute for Higher Learning." Johnny read the plaque mounted on the gates out loud "Wait, Xavier? This is the damn X-men head quarters?"

"Yeah." Remy stopped his bike outside the mansions gates.

"Remy, you sure we can go in there? The way you mentioned how you left things makes me think they're gonna shoot you on the spot."

"Dey aint gonna do dat Kev."

'I hope.'

The last time Remy had even talked to one of the X-men was two years ago when he saved Storm in Cairo, Egypt. She had long ago forgiven him for what he did to Spyke but was still weary of him. After he had saved her she changed her mind of him. The two had some what brother and sister relationship after he nursed her back to health, but they barely kept in touch. Sarah and Kendall though were his only tie to the school, they wrote to him constantly and he made the occasional trips to see them. But most times though it was Sarah who would come down to New Orleans (the older x-men were still uncomfortable with him). They had told him about Jean's death after what happened with the Phoenix, which was the last time he had made the trip to the X-mansion. He wanted to pay his last respects to Jean.

Each time he wanted to see Rogue, but every time she managed to escape. The one time he did see her was at Jean's funeral, but it was only for a moment. He was a few rows behind her as the eulogy took place. He couldn't see her once she sat down, but the glimpse he got of her when she walked up to Jeans casket was enough to make his heart stop beating.

When he tried talking to her, he got bombarded by the Professor; by the time he tried to find her again she was gone.

The girl knew how to run away from him, Rogue always seemed one step ahead of him.

'If she doesn't want to see me, then I don't want to see her.' He thought at the funeral. That was three years ago.

"Remy!"

Bishop's yelling snapped him back to the present.

"Qui?"

"Shouldn't we ring the buzzer now?"

"Oh right." Before Remy could go near the buzzer the gates opened for him and his friends.

"Seems like they know we're already here."

They all looked at each other, "Lets go." They revved up their bikes and rode in.

---------

"Scott, are you sure about this? I mean if the others found out-"

Scott cut off his wife "Emma it's been a long time, we need to see him." He reasoned with her as they stood by the front door.

Emma shook her head; she knew the real reason why Scott wanted to see Gambit. But she was more worried about how the others would take it. She had heard stories of what happened between Gambit and the team, and frankly she couldn't believe that the man would show up on their front step.

A loud knock came from the door.

"That's him, now be nice Emma." He warned his wife (she had a soft spot for Rogue). "I'm always nice sweetie. Just open the door."

And he did, it was the first time in ten years he had seen Gambit properly (He missed him at the funeral). He noticed that Gambit cut his reddish brown hair, it was now slightly passed his ear, and he no longer had a beard but a five o'clock shadow. He looked much healthier and not to mention cleaner than the last time he had seen him, what ever he was doing for money in New Orleans, he was doing it well.

Behind Gambit, stood three other guys: one was blond and had a biker look to him wearing a couple of dog tags around his neck; the second one was African American with a goatee and had on dark frames over his eyes, and the last one was also African American, he was the tallest of the four and buffest, bald and had a M tattooed over his right eye.

"Gambit, welcome back." He made way for the three to walk in.

The mansion looked a lot bigger and more decorative then the last time. The whole place was completely different. It had a more modern and had an edgier look.

"Looks like de Professor did some redecoratin', eh?" he asked dropping his bag on the tile floor.

Scott closed the door behind him, "Uh… the professor stepped down as head leader after…"

He couldn't bring himself to say it, but the blond woman next to him could.

"After the death of Jean, he couldn't handle the pressure." She stuck out her hand for Remy to take. "I'm Emma Summers." She smiled at him.

"Summers?" he brought her hand to his lips to kiss, "Y'don't look like one, femme as belle as you cant be related t'dis fou."

"No shit." Commented Johnny as he checked Emma out. The woman was the definition was hot. Emma had on a short white skirt, tank top with her whole back exposed, and high heeled shoes.

"Actually," she slipped her hand away from Remy and wrapped her arms around Scott waist "Scott and I are married."

"Damn."

Bishop gave a sharp hit to the back of Johnny's head, "Like you ever had a chance."

Remy frowned "Y're married?"

"Yeah, a little more then a year now." Scott commented, he looked uneasy under Remy's presence.

There was an eerie silence between the two, until Emma snapped them out of it. "Okay, umm… Sweetie why don't I take the guys upstairs and you and Gambit can catch up?"

Scott was about to kiss his wife thanks until he saw the look in Remy's face. He pulled away from Emma in the last minute "Thanks, we'll do that."

As Emma took the guys upstairs she warned her husband telepathically, _Please for Rogue's sake, don't tell him until she gets back._

Did she really think he was stupid?

_Relax Emma, I'm not. Just taking him to the DR room_

_But the new-_

_I don't think Gambit can recognize them, he never saw them before._

"SCOTT!" Remy snapped him from his telepathic conversation "Y'gonna talk t'moi, or we j'st gonna stay here?" his arms were folded. Scott couldn't tell if Remy was glaring at him behind those dark shades he had on.

He cleared his throat, "Yeah sorry, follow me."

As they walked through the corridors Remy could feel Scott's emotions pouring out of him. He could feel Scott's shame and embarrassment, along with something else. Something that making him suspicious, it felt like Scott was hiding something.

"S' how's life treatin' y'?" He asked trying to start a conversation.

"Fine, um… I have to watch a danger room session in a few minutes."

"Oh, I can j'st go and-"

"No, actually I think you might want to come and watch. You might recognize a few people."

He led Remy to the DR observation deck, "Place look de same." Remy brushed his hand against the control boards. At least some things never changed. "The place may not have changed but the students sure have." Said Scott as he looked at Remy, he felt sorry for him. In more ways than one.

"Cyclops, the students are ready." A tall blue haired multiple pierced woman walked in and took a seat behind the controllers.

"Thanks Bliss, Bliss this is Gambit."

The girl turned around eyeing Remy, she smiled flirtatiously at him. "Hi."

Remy was also eyeing her, she was cute. If you liked the whole tattoo and pierced look.

"Bonjour" He kissed the back of her tattooed covered hand.

_Clink_

Something hit the glass wall.

"Damn kids." Bliss took the microphone "Alright! Session's starting now."

"Y'got new x-men?" Remy asked, he looked down to see them. A group of nine kids: three boys and six girls.

"Yeah."

The two watched as the team fought against the programmed sentinels.

"Dey're pretty good."

_Inside…_

"Knight, Marrow. Take out the first group." Commanded Torrent from the sky "Marvel Girl and I will get the second row from here."

They were supposed to take out the group of sentinels without hurting the people below.

"Help us!" Blaze looked down to see a sentinel about to destroy a bus full of children. He fired up, "Hey!" The sentinel looked up and was ready to shoot at him.

"Too slow." He dodged the bullets and was able to wrap the robot in a ball of flames burning it to ashes.

"Blaze behind you!"

Two sentinels were coming quick and heading straight for him. But they never hit him; they were frozen on the spot.

Blaze looked around to see his teammate in the sky "Thanks X-man."

X-man looked like he was struggling to hold the giant robots in place, "No prob, but you think you can…?

He nodded, and quickly turned the two machines into ashes.

"Blaze, X-man. Go help Nocturne and Genesis!" Torrent ordered through their head set. "On it Torr. X-man out." He clicked it off. "Let's go."

"Genesis, get down." Genesis quickly hit the dirt as Nocturne threw several hex bolts at the large robots. The damn sentinels seemed to like beating the two of them, they were surrounded.

One of the sentinels that got hit by her hex bolts was starting to fall…right on top of her. It was too late to port out; she was ready to feel the impact, but it never came. "Come on cuz, do I have to save yah behind again?" Nocturne looked up to see her cousin holding the sentinel up.

Nocturne could only smile at her "Thanks Jynx."

"I aim t'please." Jynx flew through six sentinels, destroying them all.

"Show off!" Blaze yelled as he and X-man were able to protect a group of innocent by standers

"I know!"

They were almost done, a few more to beat. And so far no one got hurt.

Marrow was doing well; so far she destroyed the first group of sentinels and was able to protect a building that almost got hit. She looked up to look at the observation deck, "No." her eyes must have been playing tricks on her. She rubbed her eyes, and in a flash he was gone. "Must have been my imagination." She mumbled out loud.

"MARROW! A LITTLE HELP HERE!"

A sentinel was able to grab Knight and was squeezing the life out of her. "Knight!" She threw a bunch of her spikes; they cut through the sentinel's head.

Knight fell to the ground, but was unhurt thanks to her healing powers. "What the hell were you doing?"

"Sorry, thought I saw someone."

Knight looked at her in disgust as she reloaded her gun, "While next time, pay attention. I almost got my bones snapped!" she took a shot at the sentinel behind Marrow causing it to topple back wards and destroy the two others behind it.

"_Termination needed_"

"Aw, crud." That meant they had less then a few minutes before the remaining sentinels self destructed and destroyed half of the city.

"Everyone pick a sentinel!"

There were ten left, each kid was able to take out theirs. But one still remained.

"_Now terminating_." The last one blew up; chunks of the robot hit the side of buildings and a few empty cars.

None of it though hit any by standers; X-man, Marvel Girl, and Genesis were able to create a force field to protect them.

"Torrent!" unfortunately though a good chunk got Torrent in the sky. It knocked her out, and she was falling quickly towards the ground.

Blaze flew up and caught her just in the nick of time.

"_Session completed_" the danger room returned to normal.

Blaze had Torrent in his arms; she had huge cuts on her forehead and cheek. "Kendall, you okay?"

She blinked against the change of lights in the room and smiled at up at him, "My hero. Did we win?"

He couldn't help but blush a bit "Yeah, we won." He didn't want to set her down just yet.

The doors to the DR opened and in walked Cyclops and another guy. "REMY!" Kendall jumped out of his arms and ran to the tall tanned man, along with Sarah.

He looked at his hands, 'It was good while it lasted.'

He continued to watch Kendall gush over the guy.

"Who's that?" he asked.

Nate heard the hostile tone in his friend's voice "That's Gambit, Sarah's dad."

"Yah jealous?" Bekka asked him, smirking like she already knew the answer.

Why did his sister have to be so smug?

"No!" he snapped a little too quickly. Rachael put a friendly hand on his shoulder "Relax Oli, Gambit's pretty cool."

"Y'all met him?" he asked again as he checked the guy out, Gambit didn't look tough at all.

"A couple of times when he used to come and visit. We haven't seen him in a few years though." Nate watched as Kendal began to blush at whatever Gambit had said to her.

"Um…Oli?" Bekka nudged her chin towards his balled up fists. He had fired up without knowing.

"DAMN IT!" He shook out his hands to demolish the flames. "Very funny." His sister was failing miserably at containing her laughter.

"I'm not laughing at you, I laughing with you. Y'just aint laughing though."

From behind him he could hear Aliyah and his cousin TJ laugh along with her. "Y'gonna get that smirk ripped from y'face one day." He warned her.

He looked down at his watch and then back at Kendall and Sarah still talking to Gambit. "Yo, Nate, Rachael. Tell Cyke we gotta go and get ready."

Nate just shrugged, "Might as well come with you. Daddy dearest there won't mind if we ditch early."

"But I want t'meet Gambit." Whined Bekka, "Later." The four snuck out of the room, it wasn't until the metallic doors shut with a clang that Scott looked up to see the four missing.

"I didn't think it was possible to hate someone that quickly." Bekka teased him as they walked down the hall. It was so easy to get under her brother's skin.

Oliver buried his balled up fist deep in his pockets, he could almost taste the blood as he bit his lower lip. The guy just walked in and he was forgotten in less then five seconds flat. "I don't hate, don't know him. Just don't know what the girl sees in him. He looks like a pretty boy."

She punched his arm playfully, "Said the pretty boy himself."

The twins missed Nate and Rachel giving each other looks of guilt. "We, um… we better go." Said Rachel, her and Nate stopped walking.

"Thought y'wanted to help?"

Nate swallowed, careful not to pull down his mental shield, "We got stuff to do." They knew too much, and the guilt was pressing hard on them.

Bekka shrugged, "Alright, we'll see yah later then." They walked away.

When they got to their rooms Oliver couldn't help but asked "Yah think their hiding something?"

Scott couldn't decide if he should have been happy that Oliver and Bekka left or angry that they left before he could properly dismiss them.

But with Remy right there next to him, he chose to be happy. Until he noticed his kids left with them. "Guess Nate and Rach didn't want to stay."

"Dey y'kids right? I remember Nate, how's he doin?" he had seen him a few times when he would come to the mansion.

"Alright."

"N' how's Rachel? Heard de petite looks like Jean."

"She does." He replied solemnly. Remy could feel the guilt pour out of Scott after saying that. He didn't mean to get the guy depressed about his dead wife. "Y'want t'introduce moi t'de rest?" He asked Kendall and Sarah.

"Sure." Each girl tugged on an arm and pulled him to the small group.

"Gambit this is Genesis." Sarah introduced him to a young blond boy, at least fourteen years old. Who looked slightly familiar.

"You can call me Frank." He gave out his hand for Gambit to shake. "Frank is a precog and can create energy blast." Informed Sarah. "And is telepathic."

But Gambit ignored all of that, "Do I know you?"

Frank sheepishly looked at the ground, "No, but you probably know my parents."

That's when Scott finally spoke up "His parents are Reed Richards and Sue Storm."

"The Fantastic Four? Y'parents are Mr. Fantastic and Invisible woman?"

Frank meekly said yes.

"Dat's impressive, y'parents must be proud. Y'being an x-men n' all"

"Yeah, their proud alright."

Noticing how sarcastic Frank was becoming Kendall pulled Remy along, "Moving on. This is Aliyah Neramani or Knight, what ever you want to call her." Aliyah looked older than the rest of the team, sixteen at the least. She had long dread locks, dark cocoa skin, and she had a marking over her left eye. 'She, Punisher and Bishop would get along in a heart beat.' He thought as he looked at the rather large guns attached to her belt.

"Nice t'meet you petit."

"Like wise."

"And this is Talia Josepine." Said Sarah biting her tongue from giggling. TJ slapped her arm playfully "Never ever call me that." She looked up at Gambit "Please God, just call me TJ."

Gambit never responded, he was looking at her. TJ had thick combat boots and blood red fingerless gloves, but that wasn't bugging him. It was the fact she was blue, furry and, had white bangs.

'There's something I'm missing here.'

He heard someone knocking on the glass. He turned to see Bliss with a disgusted look on her face, making a 'cut it out' gesture

_It's not what you think._ She told him telepathically.

TJ caught the look, "Eww, no. Why does everyone think that?"

"Desole, J'st dat de fur n'-"

She held up her hands to make him stop talking. "I get it."

"S' who are y'parents?"

Remy instantly wished he had never asked, he watched as her eyes filled with sadness. "I should go."

"TJ, Wait." But it was too late; she ported out of the room.

"I better go and look for her." Aliyah told them, "I'll help." Frank followed her out of the room.

_Cyclop's office…._

"It's good to see you again Gambit."

Remy was surprised by that; he took the seat across from Scott's desk. "Really? Last time I was here y'wanted t'blast moi through de wall." He looked around the office that once belonged to Xavier, Scott had changed it completely. The once gold painted walls were now blue, and covered with pictures of the x-team, past and present. Gone was the heavy wooden desk, replaced by a sleek glass desk. It took every power in his body for Remy not to take anything. The whole office screamed: I'm rich.

Scott took his seat in his head master chair, "I saw you at Jean's funeral. It meant a lot that you were there."

"Look, homme I was j'st say-"

Scott cut him off "You don't have to explain." He sighed "I think if she had a choice, she would have chosen you over me." He told him.

"Scott, it wasn't y'fault."

"Yes, it was." Scott stood up and started to pace his office. "I cheated on Jean. She loved me, and I still cheated on her."

This was the first time Remy had heard this, he let out a low whistle. "Porqui?"

"I don't know!" Scott shouted. "I-I don't know." He sunk down by his office window. "I loved Jean, I still love her." He looked up at Remy and let out a sad laugh "I was so pissed off at you after what happened, everyone kept saying no man can hurt a woman like you did."  
Remy lifted his eyebrows, surprised that people were still talking about what happened to him and Rogue.

"I hurt her so much; I pushed her over the edge. It was my fault that she died."

Remy walked over to him and gave out his hand "Oui, y'did hurt her, mais y'didn't kill her." He lifted him up from the floor. "Y'never killed her homme."

Scott though shook his head "Do you know the last thing she told me before she died?"

"No.".

Breathing steadily, in and out, trying to control the raw emotions in him after three years, Scott told him. "She said: I am sorry. _She_ apologized. After everything _I_ did to her, she was the one to apologize." He ran his fingers through his brown locks, remembering the pain that night.

"Dat's Jean for yah, she always blamed herself."

Scott sniffed, "Yeah, I know." He took his seat again.

Before Remy could speak again, a soft knock on the office door interrupted him.

"Come in."

Rachel poked her head through, "Cyclops, Nate and I are going to the video shop. We'll be back later."

"Alright. Be safe."

Remy waited until the door closed to ask "Y'let your own daughter call y'Cyclops?"

"Yeah well, kids will do that when you marry the woman you cheated with." He said rather stiffly.

Remy unconsciously started playing with his watch; this was the last conversation he ever wanted to have.

"They really don't like me." Scott admitted.

"Dey'll get over it, sooner or later."

Scott tapped his fingers against his desk, "Right."

All of a sudden Kitty ran through the door looking scared. "Cyc- REMY?!"

"Bonjour Chaton." He smiled at her.

"Kitty, what's wrong?"

Through her gasps Kitty was able to answer, "Quick. Logan and this guy are fighting it out downstairs!"

The two men ran after her.

When they got to the guest room, Kitty let out a shrill scream.

There in the middle of the guest room was Logan, with his claws going through Blade's head. "Kevin!" shouted Remy.

The sick park was Kevin didn't look like he minded the claws; he was smiling like a maniac with his vamp teeth showing. "You haven't changed, Howlett" he said to him hauntingly.

Logan retracted his claws, "You nasty low down piece of-"

A gunshot whizzed by his head, "Back away from Blade."

Remy craned his neck to see Bishop with his gun raised and Johnny with his switch blade out behind him.

Logan finally noticed that Remy was standing not too far from him, "What the hell are you doing here Cajun?"

"Came t'visit." Remy, Johnny, and Lucas checked on their friend, who had blood spilling down his face.

Logan dead eyed Scott, "Cyclops, can I have a word with you? Now."

_Cyclops Office…_

"What the hell were you thinking?" Wolverine practically shouted at him. Scott looked across the room, standing in front of him looking rather surprised and/or angry were Logan, Kitty, Piotr, and Emma.

"Look he just came, he and his friends don't have anywhere else to go." He explained to them as he leaned back in his chair. "He's staying, so you'll just have to get over whatever vendetta you have against his buddies." He pointed at Wolverine.

"And what about the vendetta Rogue has with Gambit? Or have you forgotten?" Piotr asked, his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't like this one bit.

"Rogue is on a mission, she's not going to be back until tomorrow." He looked up to see his team looking confusingly at him.

"What?"

"Rogue's team is coming back today." Kitty explained.

"No, they're coming back on Tuesday."

Kitty walked over to his desk and picked up his calendar, "Damn it Scott, don't you ever change your calendar?" she ripped of the first two pages. "_Today_ is Tuesday."

Scott could feel the color drain from his face. "Oh, Dear God." He had completely forgotten to rip of the days from his calendar.

"So… who wants to tell her?"

Logan held out the door for his teammates to leave "Sorry bub, but this is your problem."

"Emma?" he pleadingly asked his wife.

"I'm sorry sweetie, you know I would want to help, but I rather be dead than be on Rogue's shit list."

Logan shut the door behind him after she left, "Good luck, Slim."

'What a team.'

The sound of an air craft landing could be heard right outside his window.

"Crap."

_Hallway_….

After Remy had made sure that Blade was alright he decided he should look for Rogue, he wanted to…hell he didn't know what to do when he saw her.

"Exuse moi, do y'know where Rogue is?" he asked an Asian girl with spiky hair. The girl scrunched her face up "Rogue?...Oh, you mean Miss Raven?"

"Um…Oui" he said uncertainly. The girl pointed down the hall. "Her classroom is down there, room 207."

He was already down the hall when he shouted his thanks.

'Room 207.' He looked at the plaque posted next to her door,

_Miss Anna Raven. Political Science, Government, and History._

'Anna Raven?' the name didn't sound right to him. She was forever going to be Rogue in his mind. He leaned his head against the door, was he ready to see her? He brushed his fingers against the doorknob; an inner battle was brewing in his mind.

"Y'gonna go in there, or are yah j'st gonna admire the damn door?" asked a voice behind him.

Remy turned around; at first he thought it was Nate. The boy did have white on brown hair, but this boy looked taller and had on dark shades. He recognized him as one of the three boys from the new x-men. He had left before Sarah and Kendall could introduce him. Remy looked at the boy, he looked eerily familiar.

"I-I. Sorry." Remy moved out of the way to let the boy pass him. The boy walked in the class room and stated to look through Rogue's desk.

"Should y'be really snoopin' through y'teacher's desk?"

Oliver snapped his head up from what he was doing to look at Gambit. "Y'haven't been here very long have you?" he asked Gambit.

"I know Rogue doesn't like it when people look t'rough her t'ings." He smirked at him. Oliver glared at the man, he hated people who smirked, except his sister. They were so full of themselves. "I don't think _Rogue_ would mind _me_ lookin' through her things."

Remy kept looking at the Oliver as he continued to look through Rogue's desk. The boy's face looked familiar, along with his hair, and the way he talked. "Found it!" Oliver shut the drawer and stuffed what ever he found in his pocket. "Oli didn't you hear me calling?" Bekka came in the class room. "I heard yah, j'st chose to ignore yah. Y'know I can't stand it when you yell like that in my head."

Gambit continued to watch the twins, "I wouldn't be yellin' if you would answer me." She said smugly, a smirk plastered on her face.

The smirk did it, now he was sure. It was _his_ smirk on the young girl's face. He stood there like a statue, watching the twins talk.

"Are you okay?" Bekka asked him. Gambit shook his head, "Yeah, I'm okay."

The twins looked at each other, clearly not believing a word he said. "As long as you're okay." They left.

It was a minute before Remy realized that they left and went after them. "Oli!" he shouted after the boy, he didn't know the girl's name.

"Oliver."

"What?"

"My name is Oliver."

Remy ran his fingers through his hair, "Oh, j'st heard your sister call y'-"

Oliver cut him off "She's my sister, she can call me that." He snapped.

"Oli, be nice. I'm Rebecca, but y'can call me Bekka. You're Sarah's dad?"  
'And quite possibly yours.' Remy looked at her, she looked like Rogue. Bekka had her green eyes, but his smile and long curly red-brown hair. It struck him as odd that Rogue's daughter would were a _skirt_ and a _pink_ t-shirt. Oliver was also out of the gold and black uniform and in a black t-shirt with bleeding skull and black baggy shorts, no doubt a trend he picked up from Rogue's love of Goth. Next to each other, the twins looked as different as night and day.

"Yeah," he said after a while, "Have you guys seen Rogue?"

The twins looked at each other, "She's on a mission. We gotta go."

"Thanks." So he had to wait awhile until he could talk to her.

"Hey Gambit." He turned around to see only Bekka in the hall. "Yeah?"

"What type of power do yah have? Sarah never mentioned." Bekka asked him, she studied him for a while, Oli was right; he did look like a pretty boy. His red-brown hair was curly and slightly long. His bangs hung over his sunglass cover eyes boyishly. He looked familiar to her, somehow. Like she already knew him, she tried to read his mind. But his mental shields were hard to break through.

"Y'wanna see?"

She nodded her head yes. Gambit pulled a quarter from behind her ear and handed it to her.

"Wow, a quarter." She dead panned.

Gambit scowled, the trick usually worked on kids. "Keep it, cherie."

He turned around and started to walk away, until she spoke up again. "Cheap. Y'got like two hundred dollars in here, and all yah pulled out was a quarter?" Remy looked to see her flipping through a wallet. He quickly patted down his pants to find a certain piece of property missing.

"Give dat back!" he snatched away his wallet from her. "How did y'do dat?" he asked her, there was no way she could of have taken it from _him_. Bekka shrugged indifferently. "I gotta go; my mama is comin' home today."

"Rogue's coming home today?"

"Yeah," she said rather slowly, trying to figure out how he knew that Rogue was her mom. "Oli and I are settin up something in the teacher's office."

Gambit smirked "Mind if I joined you?"

----------------------------------

Rogue had been through hell and back, and the last thing she needed was Bobby in her face as she carried Mystique over her shoulder.

"You didn't have to shoot her Rogue." Iceman shouted at her as she and the rest of her team walked into the mansion.

"So yah wanted her tah shoot meh?" She passed Mystique over to Sabertooth "Put her in the infirmary." She ordered him.

"On it."

"Rogue, what you did was stupid, dumb-"

She snapped "And what yah did wasn't?"

"She's got you there." Lady Mastermind teased him.

"Shut up Regan!"

"Hey, don't blame me just because you fell for miss blue."

"That's none of-"

Rogue had had enough, "SHUT UP!" she rubbed her temples, "Just shut up." All she wanted to do was get her kids and go home. All the voices in her head were killing her and her heart ached for her babies.

"Rogue, can we talk?" Scott asked her as she made her way upstairs. "Where are mah kids?" "In the teacher's room." She began to walk towards there. "Rogue, we really need to talk, now."  
"Scott if this is about the hetacomb, Ah'm fahne. All I need is a Genosha bracelet, and Ah'll be good as new."

He pulled her arm to make her stop walking, "It's not about that, well that's important too."

"Scott, spill it." She crossed her arm; she didn't have time for this.

"It's…umm." He was hesitating.

Sighing she continued to walk down the hall, "Rogue!" "Talk n'walk, sugah." She reached the teachers room.

"Rogue we need to talk first."

Rogue opened the door to see the room decorated in streamers and balloons.

"Welcome back Mom!" her kids had threw a surprise party. She wrapped them in a huge hug and kissed them all over their faces, "Gawd, Ah missed yah two lahke crazah."

"Did y'miss moi Rogue?" the voice made Rogue's blood boil and skin crawl. She snapped her head at the direction of the voice. Out from the shadows of the room walked Remy LeBeau, anger written all over his face. And she was sure behind those sunglasses that his eyes were burning with hate.

Rogue looked at him and then to a guilty looking Scott.

"I t'ink y'and I have some talkin' t'do. _Chere._"

------------------------------------------------------------------

**In case you're confused its: Kendall/Torrent, Frank/Genesis, Nate/X-man, Rachel/Marvel Girl, TJ/Nocturne, Oliver/Blaze, Aliyah/Knight, Sarah/Marrow, Rebecca/Jynx. Every character mentioned, belongs to Marvel Inc. Iceman and Mystique were a 'couple' in 199#-201#.**

**A sneak peak at Crossover ch9:**

"_Ow." She felt something prick her side. What the hell was that? Rogue looked at her side to see something oozing from her shirt._

_The room started to spin around her, when she looked up at Cyclops she knew she was done for: there was three of him_._ "What-What did yah do tah meh?" _

**Sneak peak at X-men ch4:**

"_And what if I don't want to?"_

_Before Gambit could blink, Scalphunter was behind him, holding a knife to his neck. Gambit could feel the blade rest softly against his skin. _

"_Then you know what happens." Scalphunter whispered in his ear. _


	5. Chapter 5

Scott flinched horribly as he caught the look on Rogue's face. Now that her powers had upgraded from rendering people comatose to killing them with a single touch, he was sure that she would whip of her glove and kill him on the spot.

Rogue's eyes were still on him, "What the bloodah hell is he doin' here?" she growled as she shielded her children from Remy as if he might attack.

"Rogue. I can explain." Scott calmly reasoned as he put in his hands up incase she attacked him.

"Yah bettah." She growled softly, her green eyes burning with hate and disgust at the sight of Remy.

"Mama, what's wrong?" Bekka asked as she tried to move around her mother, but Rogue wouldn't let her.

"We need t'talk chere. Now." His arms were folded over his chest, and his voice sounded guttural.

"We have nothin' tah talk about Gambit."

"I t'ink we do!" he yelled. His hands were glowing a faint pink color. She eyed him for a moment, if he wanted to talk then fine. This was a long time coming.

"Fine," she turned to Scott "Cyclops, take my kids out. And Ah want tah talk tah yah latah."

Scott nodded as he opened the door to lead the twins out. Bekka followed behind him, but Oliver stayed back, something about the guy put him off. "I'm not goin'" He said stubbornly, his eyes glued to the Cajun. If the man thought he could yell at his mother like that he had another think coming.

"Go Oli. Ah'll be fine." She gently pushed him towards the door. "But mom!"

"Go." Her tone was firm. Oliver gave Remy one more look, and silently whispered to his mother "If he hurts yah…"

"Ah'll let yah have the first punch." She winked at him. Rogue closed the door; it was now only her and the Cajun.

Rogue leaned back on the door, "What do yah want?" she asked him.

Remy sneered as he looked her over. She was no longer a goth, and her hair had grown past her shoulders. Even her uniform had drastically changed: from the black and green spandex to green with silver lining robe complete with a hood and cape. She looked so much older and tired.

"Don't y'dare play dumb wit' me!" he yelled "Why didn't y'ever tell me dat I had kids?"

He was expecting "It's not your business" or "I was scared." But the answer he got just about floored him.

"Who says they're yoahs?" she asked him coolly as she walked over to the desk and sat down on it. She was trying to control herself, from taking off her gloves and draining him on the spot, from snapping his neck. But she stayed firm.

"Dieu, I may not remember a lot from my past, mais I remember how I looked like! And dose deux kids look a helluva lot like moi!"

"Really?" She took off her gloves to examine her nails "Ah see no resemblance."

Remy was now fully aware that her gloves were off, he held his chin high in hopes of showing that her powers didn't scare him at all.

He took two steps forward to get closer to her. "Den tell me, what's do de boy gotta wear sunglasses inside?" He asked, lowering his own shades to reveal his red on black eyes. Rogue titled her head to the side, smiling her own little smile.

"He aint the onlah one in the mansion tah wear sunglasses inside," She had a point, Remy had seen the class photos in Cyclops office of the x-team: a lot of the students had own sunglasses.

"And besides it's just an eye infection. He was born with it."

Remy couldn't tell if she was lying or not, her mental shield had vastly improved.

"Eye infection my ass! Dose are my kids Rogue! MY KIDS!" He started to pace around the faculty lounge, rubbing the tension building in his neck.

"They're yoah kids?" her question was spoken in a quiet deadly whisper. Her mouth set into a frown as she bit the inside of her cheeks. "They're yoah kids?" she asked again louder this time. She got up from the desk to face him, "So yah were there when Ah gave birth?" she asked him as she walked towards him. "No…that was Logan and Jean-Paul."

"Rogue."

She ignored him as she continued on "Were yah there when Ah changed their diapers and fed them? No, that was Storm and Jean."

"Rogue." He repeated her name louder, but she was determined. She was ticking everything on her fingers. She was on number seven now.

"How about when Ah taught them how tah read? Or when Ah showed them how tah ride their bikes? Or when Ah took them tah school?"

She looked through his sunglasses into his eyes that were burning red.

"Were YAH there for _anah_ of those?!" she yelled in his face.

Remy sighed as he hung his head, "Non."

"Ah thought so." She nodded her head "Ah thought so."

Remy bit his mouth to keep from charging one of his knives and throwing it at her. She never told him about them, she had no right to yell.

"How old are dey chere?"

"Don't yah dare evah call meh that." She snapped, but he ignored her. "How old?" he bit off his words.

"Thirteen. Eight months till they're fourteen."

He did the math in his head, there was no way that those kids didn't belong to him "Why didn't y'tell me?" his voice cracked.

"They aint yoah kids. Therefore yah don't need tah care."

"Damn it Rogue. Stop being stupid. Who's else could dey belong t'huh?" he grabbed her shoulders and shook her little "I was de only one t'sleep wit' y'." he shouted angrily.

Rogue bit her lip, she pushed Remy far from her and yelled before she could think "What makes yah think that Ah onlah slept with yah?!"

Her question made his heart stop beating for a second. Just a second, before his arms collapsed to his sides, heavy and numb.

"Y-Y'…Qui?" his hand was on his heart, trying to feel a beat. He couldn't imagine her doing that with anyone else. Just some random guy?

"Don't look tah shock Gambit, aint lahke yah neveh had a one night stand befoah. Did yah honestlah think that I was gonna mope around foah yah? After yah left Ah went tah the clubs…and met a few men." She looked at him again. "Few days later Ah found out Ah was pregnant." She shrugged.

"Dieu." Remy took a seat, laying his head in his hands as he absorbed what she had just said. If what she said was true then that meant…

He wasn't going to give up.

He stood up, and wiped his sweaty hands down his pants. "I want a blood test."

"What?"

"Y'heard moi. I want a damn paternity test."

Her eyes widened. "Ah just told yah-"

"If dey aint my kids den y'don't have t'worry."

Rogue looked at him through peered eyes, hands on her hips. "What do Ah have tah worrah about?"

Remy walked right up to her, close enough that barely an inch stood between them. "Lots of t'ings."

His voice sounded cold and made Rogue slightly tense before she sucked in some air. "Fine, yah want a blood test? Yah'll get yoah damn test." She started to walk away but Remy grabbed her wrist. "We're not finished yet."

She snatched her wrist back and walked out, "Leave a note."

-----Kitchen----

Bobby stretched his arms, hearing each little bone pop has he took the cranks out of his muscles. The entire mansion seemed to be buzzing with energy, something about 'new guys'. But he ignored it, coming back from mission he was too tired to focus on gossip.

As he walked into the kitchen he wished he looked around first.

'Oh, God.'

There sitting at the kitchen table was Pulse, drinking something from a mug. This guy was one of the particular reasons why Rogue decided to take the position as field leader. To get away from him, Pulse and Rogue used to date until Rogue had found out about his situation with Mystique.

"Hey Bobby!"

Was it too late to run and hide?

He winced a bit as he pulled out a bottle of soda from the fridge and took a seat across the blond mutant.

"Hey…um Gus."

"Where's Sam? Thought the guy would be around."

Bobby tried to focus on anything else beside the man. He had wished he brought his cell.

"Lila dragged him out of here as soon as she saw him. Something about catching up." He scratched the back of his neck.

"Poor guy. Can you think of any thing worse than coming back from a four month mission and then being dragged to a date with out rest?" Pulse asked smiling as he took another sip from his mug.

Bobby just tapped his nails against the table. 'I can think of a few things.' He thought, he tried fighting the urge to freeze the mutant to death.

Bobby looked at Pulse again. The man shrugged. 'Here it comes. 3, 2…1"

"So how's Rogue? Do you know where she is?"

Bobby took another sip of his soda. 'Probably trying to hide her self from you.'

"Last time I saw her Cykes was trying to get her attention.

"Oh."

They sat in silence for a few minutes until Wallflower and Icarus walked in. Each wearing a face of confusion and humor.

"Do yall know who Gambit is?"

Pulse sprayed out whatever contents of the drink was in his mouth all over the table. Bobby scooted away from him, while keeping his eyes on the two students.

"Ah'll take that as a yes." Jay smiled as Laurie handed Pulse a towel to wipe up the mess.

"So who is he?"

Bobby raised his drink in the air in mock solute. "Gambit. Former acolyte, former x-men, former marauder. Current status: butt hole."

"Why do you ask?" Pulse coughed. He had heard the name mentioned before he and Rogue started to date.

"Well…he's here."

Bobby eyes widened "What!?"

"He's here. We just heard Miss. Raven going off on Mr. Summers for inviting him in."

The two grown men looked at each before rushing upstairs to Cyclops office. "Now I know why Scott was so eager to talk to her." Bobby said as he rushed up along side Pulse up the stairs.

Jay and Laurie watched as the two left.

"You think they're gonna duke it out?" Laurie asked smiling.

"Ten bucks Miss Raven is gonna drain him dry."

------------Cyclops's office---------

Scott Summers had faced a lot of things in his time as an x-men, from a million year old demented mutant to the FOH. But he rather face all of his opponents then go up against his toughest most scariest opponent.

"Rogue, seriously can you calm down?" Scott tried reasoning with her. Rogue was tossing a fire ball back and forth between her hands. She had already thrown three at him, which Scott barely missed. To bad he couldn't say the same for his office.

"Ah past calm thirteen years ago, Ah'm pissed as hell now!" she threw the fire ball. It singed his office curtain.

"Damn it!" He pulled the curtains down from there rods and stomped on them to extinguish the flames. "Rogue, can we just talk?"

Rogue crossed her arms over her chest, "What do yah want tah talk about? The fact that yah let him in here. Or that yah let mah kids get near him?!" She threw another ball of flame, it barely missed his head.

"Look, I know that he's the last person you want to see." He explained calmly, as he tried to inch close to his desk. He heard her scoff at him "But he and his friends have no where else to go. I think you can handle him for a day."

"Ah don't think so Scott!"

Scott lowered his glasses a bit to rub his eyes, "It's been thirteen years Rogue, cant you just get over what happened? We all moved on with our lives, Oliver and Rebecca should know who their real father is. Your situation with Gambit shouldn't get in the way."

Rogue, who was sitting down, smiled darkly. Her finger nails tapping lightly against the chair's handle. "Should yah reallah be the one tah give family advice?"

Scott's eyes glowed red behind the visors, "No, but as your superior I'm giving advise to follow."

"As in ordering meh?"

"Yep."

Rogue breathed in and out, she never cared to take orders from Scott. The fearless leader could preach a whole day, but never cared to follows his own set of moral rules.

"You should tell him Rogue." He advised her again. His voice was firm as he watched Rogue's reaction.

Her face twitched at the idea, and then something hit her. "Yah seem calm for a man who a couple of years ago hated him as much as I do."

Scott coughed and moved around some papers around his desk. "This has nothing to do with that."

"And Ah think it does. This doesn't have tah do anythang with mah kids; this is about yah and Gambit. Isn't it?" she asked outraged, but already knowing the answer, even if he didn't admit.

"Rogue-"

She held up her hands in front of him "No, yah listen tah meh, Scott Summers, Ah don't care whether yah tell him _yoah_ little secret. But if yah evah dare tah tell him mine, Ah swear they won't be able tah find yoah bodah, and Ah'm a lawyer. Ah can do that!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.

She stormed out angrily from the office, slamming the door so hard that a few photos fell off the walls. Scott released a pent up sigh, '_That actually went better than I imagined_.' He pulled out a bottle of Stoli and a shot glass from the bottom drawer of his desk. "So this is where you hide the bottle." An amused voice spoke up. He looked up to Emma smiling at the sight of her him drinking in the middle of the day; she took a seat in his lap.

"It suddenly hit me." Scott commented after a while.

"What?"

"There's no difference between Rogue's power and her skills as an attorney. They'll both drain you dry." He took a long swing from the bottle.

--------Hallway--------

Aliyah looked down and smiled kindly at her friend. "Do you mind?" TJ shrugged, "Free country." Aliyah slid down against the wall to sit next to her.

"Are you okay?"

TJ didn't answer, she wrapped her arms around her knees against her chest and laid her head down.

"Look, he didn't know. You shouldn't blame yourself, it wasn't your fault." Aliyah comforted her. "Hey, think about it. Whose family isn't screwed up?" she tried laughing, but it came out as forced.

"Some kids can run away from their parents, but I'll always feel trapped." Tears started to run down TJ's face as she continued to talk. "Imagine being five years old, and everybody is saying that you're an accident. That you were never wanted." She smiled through the tears, "Even your own mother and father saying that after they just said that they loved you." She finally broke down, and started to sob.

Aliyah hugged, "Wanda and Kurt don't know what they're talking about. Neither do those damn young avengers."

TJ pulled away from yeah, sniffing. "Yeah right."

Aliyah wasn't having any of this. She shook her lightly, "Listen to me. None of us come from a perfect family. We all have over come the crap our parents give to us, whether we like it or not."

TJ wiped away a tear, "Yeah, I know. But it's just-"

"But nothing, we don't have to prove anything to anybody, especially to our parents." TJ sniffed again "Thanks."

Aliyah poked her shoulder "No problem." She sighed. "You should consider your self somewhat lucky. At least you had a both parents at one point. Most of us never saw our moms or dads."

"I actually kind of wished I was in that situation." TJ laughed "I'm going to be in therapy till I'm forty because of those two." They laughed together, it was sad reason to laugh but it was the only thing that kept them strong.

"We all may have grown up in a broken family. But _we're_ family; nothing is going to change that." Aliyah promised, she took TJ's hand into her own.

From afar, Bishop watched the two girls comforting each other. He was drawn to them when he heard the crying from TJ. At first he didn't believe his eyes; he shook his head, trying to see if he was just hallucinating. But he wasn't.

Silently he pulled out a wrinkled aged photo from his wallet, and looked at it. The picture was of a woman and a little girl.

The woman's eyes were dark, but glowing with happiness as she held her two year old daughter in her arms and pointed at the camera.

The little girl had thick curly black hair and a marking over her left eye. Bishop could feel his heart sink into his stomach as he looked up from the photo to the two girls sitting. He knew that it was her, there was no doubt.

'_Aliyah_'

-------------Rogue's House------------

Sam rang the door bell. After coming back from his date with Lila, Bobby and Gus had told him what had happened. The southern x-men was pissed as hell when he was told that Scott had actually agreed to let the Cajun stay at the mansion. When Scott refused to talk about it, saying that his decision was final, Sam punched him square in the face.

Damn the consequence, ol'Scotty boy didn't care about anyone besides Emma and himself anyway.

Rogue answered the door, "Sam, what are yah doin' here?" He smiled "Nice question tah ask, don't yah think?" He looked down at her wrist, the Genosha bracelet was on and working. He pulled her wrist, pulling her body closer to his and kissed her fully on the lips.

Rogue blinked as she pulled back, "Yoah date with Lila ended earlah, Ah'm guessin'?" She closed the door once he was inside.

"Ah heard what happened." He thought Rogue would be angry or at least upset, but she looked calm. 'Can never be to sure' He thought, her famous temper was something that he always somewhat admired.

"Oh." She led him into the kitchen. The smell of fried fish, macaroni & cheese and mashed potatoes assailed his nostrils.

"Yah cooked?" He asked amused, Rogue had a bad habit of burning food after coming back from a mission or work. The food though looked and smelled delicious.

"Yah kiddin' meh, right?" Rogue leaned her head back laughing. "Nah, the kids cooked. Yah wanna bite?" she offered.

"Yeah."

After she prepared him a plate they walked outside and watched the twins practice fighting from the patio. "Uncle Sam!" The twins cried running up to him. "Missed y'all two." He told them, giving them a huge bear hug and kissing the top of their heads.

"Guess who we saw." Said Bekka as she latched onto Sam's arm.

"Who?"

"Sarah's dad, we finally got to meet him.

"Aint nothing to be blabin' about, Bekka." Oli grumbled as he twirled a bo-staff in his hands. "The guy aint much, I can take down that pretty boy in ten seconds flat." Oli took the staff and hit it against a tree branch, breaking it apart.

"Ah believe it." Sam chuckled; he nodded thanks to Rogue when she passed him a can of soda.

Becca poked her brother in his rib with her staff, "He aint so bad, he was cool with us." Oliver scowled at her; he swung his staff, but missed her head by a foot. "The jerk yelled at mom! How the hell do yah think he's cool?"

Sam looked at Rogue, frowning. "He what?"

"He yelled at mom, when she didn't want to talk to him. Was about to burn the jerk to ashes" Oliver informed him. Sam could feel his muscles twitch. "Why don't y'all go practice?" He told the kids.

As soon as the kids were out of ear shot, Rogue let out a breath of frustration.

Sam put down drink on the patio table, "He yelled at yah?"

"Don't start it Sam."

"Don't start what? Yah should have told meh."

Rogue rolled her eyes, "Didn't really plan on seeing the damn fool, so sorrah Ah didn't have time tah make room for yah!" She got up, too agitated to sit down. "Thirteen years Ah was able tah protect them from him and now…" She started to sob in her hands.

"Rogue," she could feel his arms wrap around her waist, his chin rest on her shoulder. "Ah'm sorrah, just…aftah what happened. Ah promised-"

Rogue smiled as she leaned into Sam's chest, "Ah know, Ah know." She could feel his lips on her neck. "Ah miss him, so much. He would have punched that Cajun tah a bloodah pulp."

They laughed; Sam walked her to rails of the patio. "If it makes yah feel anah bettah, Ah punched Cyke's in the face." He offered lamely.

It helped, she looked happy at the thought that right now Cyclops was holding a bag of ice to his face.

"He wants a blood test Sam. Ah don't think Ah can tell them if they asked." Rogue said numbly, her head still resting on his chest. "Didn't yah tell him-?"

She turned to face him; her eyes were wet with tears. "He still wanted tah take the test. Sam, Ah can't lose mah kids. Ah can't. Ah just can't!" She started to shake in his arms. Sam was thankful that the kids couldn't see her crying or hear their conversation. "Hey, Hey!" He grabbed her shoulders. "Yah not gonna loose those kids, Rogue." He brushed away a tear. "Ah promise, okay?"

She bit her lip, but still shook her head yes. He kissed her again on the lips, deeper this time. His hands tangled in her hair as her hands cupped his face.

Rogue pulled away, needing to breath. "Okay."

------------Next Day, Xavier's Mansion------------

"Don't do it man." Johnny advised Remy as they sat in the kitchen drinking coffee (Irish coffee for Johnny) and watching a short blue eyed black haired woman talking to Emma and Kitty. Even though the woman was talking to them, her eyes were glued to Remy.

Johnny saw the woman lick her painted red lips, getting impatient and bored with the two ladies. She was hot, no doubt. But Remy was already treading on thin ice around the mansion.

"Dude, you got a list of woman who want you dead. Do you really want to add another one?" he asked smirking.

"Nothin' wrong wid flirtin'."

"You mean sex?"

Remy gave him an 'innocent' look, "Now what kind of man do y't'ink I am?" Before Johnny could answer a sultry British voice interrupted him.

"Hullo."

The two looked up to see the woman stand in front of them. She was leaning in a bit, showing some cleavage. "Can I sit here?"

Remy stood up and pulled out the chair for hair, "By all mean, _chere_." He took her hand and kissed the back, "What kind of man says 'non' to a belle lady like y'self?"

The woman closed her eyes, taking in the feeling of his lips on her skin. She loved it. She crossed her legs; the short skirt crawled up to expose the creamy skin of her legs. With out knowing, Remy brushed his fingers against her knees, enjoying the heat she was radiating from being close to him.

Johnny rolled his eyes at the two. There was only so much the midnight rider could take in one morning; he stood up to leave the "couple". Knowing fully well that the Cajun lady killer could woo the woman into bed and then come in time for the blood test.

'_And Punisher says I'm the one who causes trouble. At least I ask women what their names are before I take them_.'

"Now how is it that I have been here for eight years and never saw your handsome face, luv?" the woman asked flirtatiously. Her hand on top of his. Remy looked down, no wedding ring. Time to play.

"Don't come here usually, t'ough if I knew y'were here, I would come more often." He scooted the chair closer to hers. He brought his other hand to her neck and massaged it. The woman began to purr, "Mmm, is that a fact?"

"Damn straight." He whispered huskily into her ears.

"I don't come here a lot anyway, just came to visit a friend."

Remy's eyebrows went up, "Boyfriend?"

"Not really. I'm usually on the road; I have my own band and everything." To the woman's disappointment Remy removed his hand from her neck as more people came into the kitchen.

'_Damn them_!'

"Y'Lila Cheney?" Remy asked smiling; he thought he recognized the singer. She was somewhat a hit down in New Orleans.

"So you do know me. I was beginning to feel disappointed that you weren't a fan." Lila could feel the eyes around the room focus on them. Behind her were Emma and Betsy, each wanting to ring the little rockers neck so badly.

'_Jealous cows._'

"I know y'. Y'kind of big down in N'Awlins."

Lila's eyes grew wide. "You're from New Orleans?"

"Oui."

All of a sudden Remy could feel her emotions switch from excited/happy to worried/scared.

Did she know about him and Rogue?

Lila looked down at the watch on her wrist, "Oh bloody hell, I really have to get going. I have an appointment with…a friend."

Lila pushed back her chair and made a break for it. She felt Remy pull her arm, "Do y'want t'meet later _chere_?"

He lowered his sunglasses, his red and black eyes began to burn right through her. Lila could feel herself fall right for his charms.

"Gambit!"

Fortunately the spell was broken at the sound of Scott's voice. Lila was never so grateful to the x-men leader.

Scott's arms were crossed; his eyes were looking back and forth at Remy and Lila. "You're going to be late."

Remy rolled his eyes as he pushed back his sunglasses, "Merci homme." He answered sourly. He left the kitchen to meet Rogue at the lab.

"Scott, I can explain-"

Scott held up a finger to Lila, her naivety was always something he never liked about her. "Don't, just don't."

-----------Med Lab---------------

"Yah still scared of labs, Cajun?" Rogue asked teasingly, behind Remy was Kevin, Frank, Lucas, and Johnny.

"Yah know yah didn't have tah bring yoah boyfriends down here, hell yah didn't have tah take this damn test."

The guys took great offense to that, Johnny pointed a warning finger at her. "I would hit you if you weren't so cute."

Rogue scrunched her face in disgust as she led them to the pit where the mansion's resident doctor was at this time. Before she could open the door, three identical tall blond girls walked out. Each wearing the same things and walking the same way.

"Good morning Miss Raven." They said in unison as they passed her and the men.

"Oh, Gawd." Remy heard Rogue groan as she burst in the pit. Inside was a woman sitting on a swivel chair, her head leaning back and looking upward. Her long black hair spilled down against the chair's back, and the white lab coat with a gold snake pin on the lapel showed that she was the doctor.

"Swift?"

The woman turned her body to face them, but didn't look at them.

Remy looked around the room, eight beds were pushed back to the white walls, a desk full of needles and tongue depressors were set to the left side of the room, along with a cabinet full of medication and other medical tools. The smell of ammonia and the sight of needles made his stomach twist in knots. He _hated_ labs!

"Yah alright there Swift?" Rogue walked closer to woman. Swift stood up and took a long swallow from a bottle of water set on her desk.

"Damn Stepford Cuckoos." Swift pulled her hair into a high ponytail. Remy looked over her, she was pretty. Her dark brown eyes shined through her cat shaped lavender glasses. She looked Egyptian, the name on her lab coat proved him right: Dr. Amina Nurrahsain.

"The only damn thing that Phoenix did good was burn the other damn clones, otherwise…"

Rogue gave her a look of pity, "How long were they here?"

"Eight hours, eight hours of '_My water isn't cold enough_', '_My pillows aren't fluffed enough', _and my personal favorite: '_You know, if you put on a little more make-up you could actually attract a man_.'"

Rogue tried desperately not to snort, she covered her mouth to stifle the laughter but it was pointless. She knew that Stepford Cuckoos could irritate some people with their love for perfecting everything and everyone around them. Hell, a couple of time she felt like she wanted to ring the clones's necks.

Swift took another long swing of her bottle of water, and looked behind Rogue to see the five men stand behind her.

"Um…which one am I-?" her finger wavered around them, trying to pick which guy Rogue looked compatible with.

Remy lifted his hand in the air, "Dat would be moi. Marhaba" (hello/hi/welcome) he took Swift's hand to his lips. Swift smiled at his chivalrous charms, and the fact that he knew Arabic. Remy turned and smirked at Rogue. "Unless y'want t'admit dose are my kids."

Swift looked between the two; she could see the vein in Rogue's forehead pounding. "Those kids are mine and onlah mine, yoah wastin' yoah time with this."

Remy pulled back his sleeves and sat on one of the beds. His eyes never left Rogue's "Let's do dis."

Rogue scowled at him, and looked at his friends who all shrugged. They didn't want to be dragged anymore than they already were.

"Fine, but Ah got bettah thangs tah do."

"Rogue, we should really talk. You still need to-"

Rogue drowned out the doctor's voice, "Ah got the bracelet on meh, Ah'm good." She walked out with saying another word.

"She's nice." Bishop commented dryly as he watched her leave, he tapped his foot impatiently against the stark white tiles. "Can we get on with this?"

"Nice support system you got there." Swift mumbled as she took a cotton swap from a jar. She tapped the bottom of his chin, signaling him to open up his mouth.

Remy decided this was the best time to get some information.

"Have long have y've been working here, sugarina?" (Sweetie) Swift ignored his term of endearment as she put the cotton swab in a small container. "A few years, I'm just here till Beast gets back from his mission."

She plucked a strand of his hair from his head and put it in a separate container. "How do you know Arabic?" She smiled.

"Went to Cairo a couple times, picked up some things." The rest of the guys stifled their laughter as they watched Remy starting to sweat when Swift pulled out a long tube and a needle to draw blood.

"Then you have got to know the 99 and Zein."

Remy breathed in and out as the smell of the rubbing alcohol made his head spin. "Yeah, I know dem. Zein still teaching?" He had to focus on anything to keep from throwing up.

"You know it, you actually look like him. Sort of." She told him to get his mind of off the needle, she could feel him tense up as the needle drew closer.

Remy let out a groan as the needle went into his arm, he forbid himself at looking at the tube filling a small bag with his blood.

"You okay, Gambit?" he heard Kevin ask. The man could see the Cajun start going pale. So he decided to take things into his own hands, remembering the conversation Remy told them last night after his fight with Rogue.

"Rogue's son, does he really have an eye infection?" Kevin asked the doctor.

He and the others watched Swift smile knowingly, "Yes, he was born with it. He has poor eye sight and on top of that corneal ulcer." She sealed the bag of blood, and gently pulled the needle from Remy's vein.

"Do you think there's a chance dose kids are mine?" Remy asked, his voice soft spoken at the thought of being absent from his kids lives for so long.

"I-I really don't know. Um…you'll find out by tomorrow."

Frank arched an eyebrow, "Tomorrow? Don't blood tests usually take more than 24 hours?" he asked, the others agreed with him.

"Thanks to Shi'ar technology we usually get stuff done in half the time than normal top of the line hospitals do." Swift informed them, pulling her gloves off with a loud snap and throwing them in a waste dispenser.

"Shukeran." (Thank you) Remy hopped off the bed, he could feel the color return to his face. Hopefully all this was worth it. He wanted to know, he needed to know.

"Gambit, may I ask?"

"Shoot." He replied, pulling his sleeve down.

"Do you really want these kids? I mean, from what I heard you live more than a thousand miles, you have your own business, and do you realize how hard it is for those kids to warm up to people? It took Joe like months to get on their good side and they were-"

Remy frowned; his mind reeled to the name. "Who's Joe?" The men all of sudden seemed interested in the conversation. Swift went pale and began to flutter her hands to her face.

"You? You don't know…?"

Remy shook his head 'no' to her unfinished question.

"Yah Allah. Umm, this is not a conversation to be having with me." Swift said sternly as she put the sample's from Remy into a large numbered zip lock bag. "You'll get the results tomorrow." She said in a hurry and walked out, eager to get out before anyone of them asked more questions.

Remy stood still, more questions floated in his mind. "Joe?" he repeated looking at his friends.

"Seems like your girl may be right." Johnny chuckled; he barely missed one of Remy's knives aiming for his head.

"HEY!"

---------Next day, Med Lab----------

"What? No boyfriends today?" Rogue asked as this time Remy led them to Swift's office. He so desperately wanted to gloat in Rogue's face that he was right, and she was wrong. Remy took the sight of her in, she was out of uniform, wearing a long sleeve green t-shirt and jeans. Her hair pulled high in messy bun. Remy's eyes went straight to her neck, red marks could be clearly seen run along side her jaw line and lower neck.

Rogue unconsciously covered her neck with her hand. 'Damn it, Sam.' She cleared her voice, "After yah." She opened the door for him.

"I would t'ink so." He replied grumpily walking into the office. It took every fiber in Rogue's being for her to _not_ burn him into ashes.

"Swift." Remy called out. The office had changed dramatically since Beast had owned the office; the walls were now painted a light purple color with a large dark wooden furniture and state of art line computers. A high arched leather chair behind the desk was vacant. "Swift?"

The doctor poked her head from behind a cabinet. "Sabah alnur." (Good morning) Remy greeted her with a wink. "Caf Halic?" (How are you?)

"Alhamdillah, I fine. Thanks for asking." She smiled.

Rogue looked between the two of them, making note to remind herself to warn Swift about the Cajun's charms and games.

Swift pulled out a manila folder from her desk, waving it back and forth in the air. "Got the results for you."

Rogue snatched the folder from her hands before Remy could. "Cajun, yah sure yah want tah see?"

He stared her down, and stretched out his hand. "Give me de damn t'ing." He growled, the sooner he knew, the sooner he could meet his kids.

Rogue unceremonious handed him the folder. Remy flipped through a couple of signed documents till he saw the results.

He gulped down the heart break he felt, he had to sit. And soon before his feet gave out.

"Well?" Rogue questioned him.

Remy coughed, trying to push back the sob that threatened to come out. "Oliver J. Raven and Rebecca R Raven are proved not be de son n' daughter of Remy E. Lebeau. De blood test showed dat de children are .01 match with Remy E. Lebeau." Remy read the results in hallow voice. He didn't want to look up at Rogue, to see her smiling and saying 'Ah told yah so.'

"Satisfied Cajun?"

He was too numb to speak. "Dere not my kids." He said out loud to himself.

"Now, since that was clear up, Ah take it yoah gonna stay away from mah kids from now."

"Dere not my kids." He repeated again. He was shaking in the seat, trying not lunge at the woman who he used to love.

"Ah know." She made her way towards the door, but paused to turn to him one more time. "And Cajun, if Ah do evah see yah near _mah_ kids again, Ah will kill yah."

Swift shook her head in dismay, even though she knew the history between Remy and Rogue, she could tell that he did really want those kids.

"I know it's not the news you wanted to get." She started to speak, taking a seat behind her desk.

"Is dere…is dere a chance dat y'could-"

"I did those tests three times, each time showed the same results." She watched at he sagged lower in the chair. "I am so sorry Gambit."

"I-I j'st t'ought dose kids were mine. I wanted dem t'be mine." He got up, and ran his hands through his hair. "Dey look so much like me, are y'sure?"

"Not everyone looks the same in there family. Do you know Bliss? Tall woman, blue hair, enough tattoos to cover an entire wall?"

'Yeah… y'point here?"

She smiled, "She's my sister."

"Y're kiddin' me, right?"

"Nope," Swift pulled out a photo of the two sisters hugging each other when they were ten. "Same parents, same life, totally different taste." She laughed as he handed her back the picture.

"You know just because you're not related to them doesn't mean that you still can't get to know them."

Remy rolled his eyes, "I doubt de chienne would let moi get ten feet near her children."

"I'll give you some advice, if you want to get to know the kids and get back on Rogue's good side; this is what you have to do."

Remy sat straighter in his chair, listening intently to what she was going to say. If she could get him on Rogue's good list he would be grateful to her forever.

"Get close to Becca, and as soon as you do then Oliver will be alright with you. But watch out around him, he's very protective over his mother. Anyone she hates, he hates."

"And dis is gonna get moi on her good side?"

"Yep. Rogue can't hate anyone her kids love. It's impossible for her."

He stood up to leave already eager to start getting to know Rogue's kids better. "Thanks Swift."

"Oh and before you go." She handed him a sealed envelope. "It's for your friend Bishop. Tell him he was right. And good luck."

After he left, Swift turned around; she already sensed their presence before they could speak.

"Satisfied?" she asked with disgust.

------------Kitchen----------

Bekka blindly looked around for a spoon in the drawer in the somewhat dark kitchen. It was two o'clock in the morning, and she was starving.

Bekka usually loved spending nights at the Xavier mansion, but the one thing she hated most was that she, her brother, and mom couldn't eat or drink a thing unless the kitchen was empty of people.

She and her brother had to beg her mom to spend the night. Rogue was usually alright with it, but she seemed rather disturbed that her kids wanted to spend the night here now. She was thankful to Sam and Bobby who had coaxed her mother into spending the night with them too.

At least then, they told her, she would be able to watch her kids and not have to worry. '_About what?_'

But her mother refused to answer her and her brother's questions.

Rogue had only two rules while they were there, 1) do not go around the mansion by yourself, and 2) do not speak with Sarah's father.

'_Wonder what happened between them_.' She pulled out a carton of mint chocolate chip from the fridge and began to eat.

She paused when she felt another presence approaching, it wasn't her mother or her brother. '_Oh, crap_!'

"What y'doin up, petite?" Gambit fumbled into the kitchen, dressed in a sleeveless beater and black sweatpants, sunglasses still on his face. His empathy had woken him up. He hated being in a house full of hormonal teenagers.

"Nothin'." She shrugged. Bekka looked over him, he looked nice. She wondered why her mother was so afraid of him. She tried once more to read his mind, but was halted again by his mental shields.

"Y'shouldn't be readin' people t'ought wid out der permission petite."

Bekka shrugged indifferently, "Sorry." She took a seat on the stool next to the island and dug into her ice-cream.

"Mind if I join y'?" Remy asked her, he too hadn't gotten a bite to eat. He could feel Becca waver a bit in her decision. She wasn't supposed to be no where near this man. '_What mother doesn't know won't hurt her_.' She used her telekinesis to pull out a spoon and give it to him.

He smirked, "Merci." He dug in.

"Yah speak French?"

"Oui."

Bekka smiled, "That's cool, so do me and my brother."

Remy's eyebrows rose above his sunglasses, "Y'mere tought y'and y' frere French?"

Bekka took another spoonful of her ice-cream. She was careful not to say too much. Just because Remy was Sarah's father didn't mean he was that nice. Otherwise why would her mother be so cautious?

"Yep."

"D'accord. So…do y'like your mere?" he asked, he wanted to know how Rogue treated her children. And if Becca was the best way to get the answers.

"Do yah?" she twirled the spoon in her fingers, and looked up at Remy. She couldn't see his eyes, but if she could, she betted that they were probably wide in shock.

"I saw the picture of yah and her in your wallet. You guys looked young, were you a couple?" If Remy thought he could only ask _her_ questions then he had another think coming.

"Something like dat." He licked his spoon clean; the memories of him and Rogue were coming back. They were so happy at one point together.

"Did yah love her?"

His mental shields were slipping, and Becca was able to get a glimpse of past before she could get caught.

"Aint y'little young t'ask dose type of questions?"

She smirked, "That's a 'yes'."

Remy could feel that he was losing the battle here, "Y'didn't answer my question."

Bekka laid the spoon down, and rested her head on her fist. "She's a good mama, the best anyone could ask for."

Remy nodded his head silently, a bit happy, and a bit disappointed. "What y'got dere?" He picked up the small i-pod next to her elbow, and looked through her choice of songs.

'_How did he see that in the dark?_' The man had dark shades, how could he possibly notice her i-pod next to her?

"Y'like jazz music?" He asked with disbelief. She had all the classics that he loved to listen to when he was little: Louis Armstrong, Hugh Boynton, Bunk Johnson.

"Some of dis stuff is older den me."

She snatched her i-pod back, "They aint that old."

"I aint insulting y', just surprised. Dose are some of mon favorites." He could feel she was warming up to him after saying that.

"Really? Wish my brother liked it."

"What does he like?"

"Mostly rap music, I can't stand it. But mama and him love it. I think it's the only thing that can drown out the voices after she absorbs someone."

Remy laughed, the image of Rogue bouncing her head along to rap music was an odd sight to see.

"The only thing we can agree on is Better Than Ezra. Mama took us to New Orleans for their reunion concert a few years ago."

"She what?!" With the spoon still in his mouth it came out mumbled and conjoined. Becca laughed as she took the spoon from his mouth. She liked him, "She took us to New Orleans. We always go there for Christmas or summer sometimes."

Remy couldn't believe it. The times he had came up to New York to visit where the times that Rogue and the kids went to Louisiana? Unbelievable.

"Are yah alright? Yah look pale."

"I'm fine, just…hey, do y'want something t'eat? I know ice-cream is good and all but how about some real food?" he stood up, throwing the spoon in the sink with a soft clang.

"Sure, I guess."

"Y'like chocolate chip pancakes?"

He watched Bekka's green eyes widened with glee. "Yeah!" She nodded her head excitedly. She put back the carton of ice-cream in the fridge and got ready to help him.

About an hour later that sat to a plate full of pancakes. Remy watched as Becca stuffed her mouth full of pancakes, sugar, and whip-cream. She looked so much like Rogue that it hurt to look at her with out feeling guilt.

"Is there any reason why yah couldn't have gotten up later?" asked a slightly deep and tired voice. Becca turned to see Oliver. He stood there watching them in his black t-shirt and blue shorts. His eyes were covered by a blind fold.

"Hey, I was wondering when yah where going to wake up." She teased him, waving a forkful of pancakes in the air. "Yah want some? Its chocolate chips"

Oliver looked between her and Gambit.

"Ce qui sont vous faisant ici avec lui? (what are you doing here with him?)

Becca sighed "il un mauvais type, il est gentil" (he isn't bad, he's nice.)

"Le est un âne de cric !" (The guy's a jack ass.)

Remy cleared his throat, "Je comprends le français, vous savez" (I can understand what you're saying)

Oliver didn't look apologetic; he scowled at Remy for talking to him. "You could have told me that."

Bekka laughed as she pulled out the stool next to her, "Thought it be funnier this way."

Oliver really didn't want to sit with him. The only reason he was up because he noticed Becca was missing, he wanted to find her before their mom woke up.

But then again, he was hungry.

And those pancakes did look good.

"Aw, come on frere. I know you're hungry." Bekka waved the plate in front of his face. Remy had to admit, the girl was good at suckering her brother. He could see the boy's face soften into a sad smile. "Fine, but we eat then leave before mama gets up." Oliver grabbed a plate from the cupboard.

'_Wait, aint the boy supposed to have poor eye sight?_' Remy continued to watch as Oliver set up a plate for himself in the dark kitchen. Something seemed off.

Remy languidly stretched his arms, a plan already forming in head. "Saw y'all battling dose sentinels. Y'two are pretty strong."

Oliver didn't look up at him, he just stabbed his fork into his pancakes. "Thanks."

"Hey, Remy. You never told me what your powers were." Becca quickly spoke up before her brother could say another word. The boy had a bad habit of starting arguments.

"Can blow t'ings up." He charged the fork in his hand, the metal glowed a faint pink before he reabsorbed the charge.

"Y'?"

Bekka sat up a little straighter, proud of her powers. "I have super strength and invulnerability. I have some psychic abilities also."

Remy scrunched his face. "My mama absorbed someone named Miss Marvel a long time ago before we were born. So my powers are from her"

Remy remembered that, Mystique had kidnapped Rogue and made her absorb the blond superhero. Permanently. For weeks he comforted Rogue as she was being tormented by the woman in her mind.

"What about y'?" he turned to Oliver.

"Mama absorbed this one guy named Sunfire when she was pregnant with us." He wiped of the milk on his upper lip with his arm. "The guy was going crazy."

"So y'can…?"

"I can turn into fire, along with other things."

Remy sniffed, "Merde!" his plate was on fire! He threw the thing into the sink and turned on the faucet, letting the water extinguish the flames.

Bekka slapped her brother's head. "You idiot, that aint nice." She wished that he wasn't immune to her powers; otherwise she would have loved to have his body fly into the wall for pulling a prank like that.

"It's okay Bekka. No harm, no foul." Remy took his seat again and looked straight at Oliver.

"Dat's some pretty fancy powers y'got." He tapped into Oliver's emotions, but all he got was the feeling of being shoved into a wall/

"Did I mention that Oliver's an empathy too?" Bekka told him coyly. She could see Remy turning slightly green after being violently pushed out.

"Merci pour l'avertissement." (Thanks for the warning) he took a gulp of his milk to him ease the nausea.

"Shouldn't have done it." Oliver laughed shoving a forkful of pancakes in his mouth.

"I wish I was empath, at least you guys have more control over your powers."

"Being a spook, aint no fun now?" Remy smiled, he liked the two kids. They were full of spunk and funny.

"Nope. Though I rather be psychic than be a medium." She mumbled in disgust, "Talking to dead people, it's amazing that yah sleep."

Remy looked at Oliver, "Y'can talk to dead people? Like that little boy in the movie?"

The twins looked at him in connfusion, "What movie?"

Remy shook his head, downing the last of his drink. "I'm showing my age. Never mind, it don't creep y'out?"

"Nah, it isn't that bad. At least I can talk to our dad."

Remy tensed a bit, they knew their father?

"Your fat'er died? Sorry t'hear dat." He was really apologetic; he too had lost his father a few years ago. He knew how it felt.

"He wasn't our real dad; he was our step-dad." Bekka spoke softly, her green eyes wear tearing up.

"Did y'know your real pere?" Remy pretended to be more interested in his glass of milk then on the question.

"Nope, we just know that he's Scott's brother."

Remy choked on his drink, spitting out milk all over him. "CE QUI?!"

"Shh! Geez, yah want the whole damn mansion to wake up?" Oliver berated him, throwing some napkins in his directions.

"Desole, it's just date. Rogue and Alex?" he could fathom over the idea. Of all the men to sleep with, ALEX???

"It's not Alex, believe us. It's another guy, we don't know who though. Mama and Cyke found out when they came back from a mission. We just know that, nothing else."

Remy massaged the back of his neck, the results of the blood test made sense now. So Rogue was right, there was no mistake. But something seemed strange...

Remy watched as Oliver got some more napkins from the cupboard under the sink.

"What?"

"Nothin', just t'ought y'had an eye infection. No one I know wears glasses in the dark."

Oliver scoffed, and leaned against the counter. "Aint that a bit weird coming from yah?"

Remy smirked, "I got my reason, but you t'ough are just faking it. Dere's no way dat y'can walk around here in de dark wid out bumpin' into t'ings"

Remy could sense the boy getting frustrated. "I lived here for five years; it isn't that hard to know where things are."

Five years? Where were they for the other eight years?

"Anyone can say dey got an eye infection, but when y're in here, den it's all lies. Y' j'st ashamed of y' eyes is all." He could see Oliver's anger, and Oliver's fists were turning bright orange.

"What the hell do you know?"

"A lot actually." He slipped off his sunglasses, but his eyes remained shut. "Took me years to get used to my eyes."

"What do you mean?" Bekka asked, she was starting to get worried. Where was this guy playing at?"

Remy opened his eyes. Bekka let out a gasp, almost choking on her last bite of pancakes. Remy's red on black eyes were glowing in the dark, the faint moon light streaming down the open windows made them glow even brighter.

"You don't have to ashamed of your eyes. After a while y'get used t'it."

Oliver was stoned frozen to his seat until his sister's half spoken words broke him out of his spell. "You-the-oh gawd!"

Oliver wiped his hands clean, "Well thank you very much for the food Gambit. But we got to go now." He said quickly, grabbing his sister and throwing her over his shoulder. He ran quickly up the steps till he reached their room leaving the Cajun alone and confused in the kitchen.

Oliver set his sister down. Her face was red with anger and shock, "He-he. What the hell was that!?" his sister whispered loudly. Her entire body was shaking, along with his.

"I don't know." He untied his blind fold to reveal his own red on black eyes. They glowed bright in the dim lit hallway. "Just know that someone is not telling us something."

---------------------------------------------------------------

**Part two of Remy vs. Rogue is next. **

**Google Zein (AK comics) and The 99. **

**Tell me what you all think. Love it? Hate it? **

**X-men 204: I was expecting hate, fighting, but all I get is Gambit crying for her to wake up and forgive him. **

**X-men 205: wolverine vs. gambit. Two words: Cajun kabobs.**


	6. Chapter 6

"I don't know." He untied his blind fold to reveal his own red on black eyes. They glowed bright in the dim lit hallway. "Just know that someone is not telling us something."

"Yah think!" Bekka snapped, her whole face scrunched in anger, her fists balled up to her sides "Keep yoah voice down." He hushed, the rooms for the adults were now sound proof, but not for the kids. Oliver took his sister's hands in his, "We-we have t'talk about this-"

"Yah do realize that we just ate a midnight snack with our _father?_ A father that she -"

Rebecca stopped mid-sentence as she felt a familiar stir of curiosity coming from one the rooms. "Oh, crud."

_**Sam's Room….**_

Rogue could feel something wasn't right. Worried filled her heart and mind, she opened her weary and tired green eyes finding her self being wrapped in Sam's arms, her head resting on his chest. Slowly she got out from his grasp, slipped on her robe, and made sure he was still asleep as she slipped through the door.

She opened the room were the kids usually stayed in when they would spend the night at the mansion and quietly walked in, making her way to her daughter's bed. Rebecca was sound sleep; she stroked her daughter's cheek softly, pushing back a curl of red-brown out of her face. She stayed there for a few seconds, watching her daughter breathe in and out peacefully, before kissing her softly on her forehead. "Good night, babah girl."

Next she went to Oliver's bed; she smiled a little as she removed Oliver's earphones out of his ears. She kneeled down next to him, smoothing down his white bangs. She looked at him for awhile, it made her slightly guilty that their father was downstairs and yet they had no clue that they were related. For a moment she wondered about telling them, only for a moment.

"Yah sure know when tah get up." Groaned a deep southern voice. Rogue looked at the door way, standing with bloodshot eyes, wearing a blue t-shit and boxer shorts was Sam. "Sorrah, did Ah wake yah?" She asked quietly, giving her son a kiss on the cheek. Sam smiled, "Yah know Ah can't sleep without yah next tah meh."

She gave him a wink, leaning against the door frame the question still fluttered through her mind.

"Penny foah 'em?" asked Sam after standing there watching Rogue look at her kids. "What?"

"Yoah thoughts. Usual market price." He joked half seriously.

"Sam, do yah think that Ah'm doin' the right thing?" She asked, closing the door with a soft click. Sam didn't think about it for a second, "Yoah tryin' tah protect yoah kids. Yoah doin what anah mama would do."

"It's just-Ah don't know. Ah promised them that Ah would tell them everythang. And after everything that happened with Mystique Ah should be able tah tell them. Ah don't want-" She huffed, and ran her hand through her hair. "Ah'm a horrible mom, aint I?" She could feel Sam's eyes on her, he was frowning "Yah want me tah be honest?"

Rogue nodded.

He shrugged and stepped closer to her, giving her a soft kiss on her nose. She wrinkled her face in delight, "What was that foah?"

"That was foah bein' a _great_ mama. Rogue, yah have been there foah those kids through everything. That makes yah a great mom. Yah just doing what yah know is right."

He pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissed her on the lips. Parting her lips with his tongue, deepening the kiss.

He pulled back, though still not letting go of her, and stared at her lovely flushed face, "What was that foah?" Rogue asked, blushing madly from the kiss.

"That was foah bein' the woman Ah love." He picked her up, bridal style. "Sam!" she squealed, but he hushed her. Taking her back to his room for some southern comfort.

A pair of glowing red eyes watched them in anger as they made their way back the room.

_**Kitchen…**_

It was five in the morning. Usually the best time for Logan to get his cup of coffee with out listening to the other teachers moan about their classes or the kids complaining about the food. Stepping into the kitchen he could smell the coffee dripping out slowly from the coffee machine; he could smell something else too.

Something that smelled like bourbon and musk, mixed with a light fruit scent and ash. Logan let out a growl, he recognized those smell. It was his own god-children and Gambit. They were in the kitchen. The children together with Gambit? He sniffed again, but he couldn't be certain. He hoped not, otherwise Rogue would have a field day.

"It's always the old ones, huh?" Logan looked up and grunted as Punisher walked into the lighten kitchen. "Castle."

The machine clicked, letting Logan know it was finished. He poured two cups of coffee, "When you guys leavin'?" he asked bluntly. Frankly, he liked Punisher. They had worked together often, but the guy had enemies and had a short temper. He didn't want the students at the mansion at risk any more than they already were.

Frank chuckled, pouring in a flask of whiskey into his cup of coffee. "It's our third day here, and we already worn out our welcome?" he asked sarcastically.

Logan snorted, "You worn out your welcome as soon as your guys stepped _foot_ into this mansion."

Frank shrugged, "Wasn't my idea. Told the boys to go some where else, it was the Cajun's idea to come here. And that kid with the glasses told us to stay."

Logan shook his head; he rested down the mug and smirked. "You're saying you couldn't over rule the Cajun?"

"Asked the man who is working for a kid more than five decades younger than him." Frank sneered; nobody had the right to put him or his boys down.

It was quiet for a moment between the two men. But Punisher broke the silence. "What you got against my boys, Howlett? They each helped you out when you got stuck, didn't think you would pay them back like that." Frank remembered coming to the mansion the first night, finding out what had happened between Blade and Wolverine. Blade was alright, but it was principle of the matter. You don't bite the hand that feeds you;

Logan shrugged nonchalantly, "They brought up things that I didn't want the others to know."

"Like what? Like Gambit saving your butt back in England a few years back?" Logan growled and grabbed Castle by his shirt. "You never bring that up again!" Logan yelled in his face. Castle pulled away from him and smoothed down his shirt, "If wasn't for him being there then you would be in _prison_. You would have never seen your wife or kids again. He saved your life Logan."

Logan shook his head in disappointment, "How did you do it Castle? Get mixed up with them?" Logan had always wanted to know how Castle and the rest met. They were a weird bunch.

Castle drained the last bit of his coffee, the alcohol sweetening the bitter taste. Making his throat burn. "Met them in DC years ago. We help each other, when one of us has issues we let them go to solve it own their own if they want. I trust my boys Howlett. I know what happened here between him and you guys. But hell if you are gonna treat him, or any of my boys for that matter, like that while we're still here."

Logan understood, he nodded gravely. "You trust the Cajun that much?"

"Have to. You surprise me though."

"How so?" Logan peered at him, "With all the crap that happened with Daken, I just thought if Remy _was_ their father, that of all people _you_ would be the first one to tell him."

Logan growled, "Damn Avengers can't keep their damn mouths shut for a half a minute." Castle chuckled and looked down at his empty cup, "So, are they really his kids?" Castle asked, he knew by the way Rogue was acting around Gambit that she was hiding something.

"They're not."

"You sure?"

Logan didn't break for a second, "Yep." Castle though didn't believe him one bit. He knew Logan too well.

It became quiet between them again. But Logan broke the silence. "You going to Rogers's funeral?" he asked with out looking up. Remembering their old friend brought back bitter sweet memories.

"Yeah. How about Ororo? Is she going too?"

"She and Panther are helping out the Fantastic Four. Reed and Susan are taking a break." Logan shrugged finishing his coffee; he stood up and refilled his cup.

Castle turned to look at him; he didn't believe what he just heard. "She's working with the Black Panther? Aint that her ex?"

Logan gave him a brusque nod.

"Even after all that crap that happened between you and her over Daken, you trust her to work with her ex?"

Logan took a sip of his coffee. "Have to."

_**Mean while…**_

Rogue opened her eyes yet again; the cold air hit her bare chest. The sheets were tangled between her legs. She snatched a handful, trying to protect herself from the cold air... Looking at the alarm clock, they had ten minutes until they had to get up.

'_Dandy_.'

Rogue thoughts were haunting her. The memories of her and gambit wouldn't go away. They never would. Even after she and Joseph met, their relationship at the beginning was tainted by her relationship with Gambit. He had broken her heart and trust. Did he even lover her?

----_Reasons_---

It was the couple's second date; their first was ruined by the appearance of some new enemy

Remy wanted to take her out to a restaurant, a romantic one were they could dance all night. But Rogue didn't want that. Instead she surprised him with a picnic.

Remy scoffed as he laid down on the checkered cloth on the grass. "So it's not the champagne and candlelight dinner I imagined when I asked you out. I supposed it'll have to do in a pinch." he looked at her. Rogue had on a tank top, gloves, and jeans.

Rogue smiled as she started taking out the food from the picnic basket, it wasn't exactly what she had in mind too. But this way was easier, casual and besides…

"I thought you'd appreciate me makin you an ol'fashioned Cajun meal with mah own two hands."

Remy smirked, with glowing eyes, "If I made a list of things to do 'with your own two hands' stirrin' gumbo wouldn't be on it."

Rogue dropped the plate of food she was holding. She could feel her whole body flush with want. She looked at him as his gloved fingers caress her bare arm. God, he looked so good in just a t-shirt and jean. How could he possibly make her feel like that? "Yah certainly know how to get under a girl's skin."

"I'm trying."

---------------------

'_No, he didn't_' she decided. He had gotten under skin, into her mind, and even bled in her heart. She was trying to control her powers for him, because she thought he deserved it.

He had _loved_ her when he couldn't even touch her. He had the chance to touch her, to have her. And what did that get her?

Heart break and two kids who she loved more than anything.

To Gambit, she finally realized after he left, that it was all a game.

She rolled over to her side on the bed to see Sam facing her, his chest shining with sweat still from their recent activities. He was still asleep as she studied his face. His skin was smooth and clear, except for the stubble covering his chin and jaw. His blond hair was a bit damp and slightly wavy looking. His arms were buff, not body builder buff, he was really strong. And brave, smart, funny, and sweet.

She smiled; their relationship was based on friendship. He was with her when Gambit left, when she got pregnant and had the twins; he was the one that stood by her when she had to tell the kids about Joe's death. He was there for everything that she went through, and she was there through everything he went through (his mother getting sick with cancer, his break ups, and his fall out with his sister). They had each other backs.

"Ah love you." Rogue for a second thought he was talking in his sleep, until she saw his blue eyes look straight at her. He found her hands and held them close to his heart.

Rogue smiled, "Ah love you too."

-------**Morning**-------

"Holy S-" Johnny Blaze jumped as the morning sun stung his eyes. For the past two nights he had to spend the night in the boat house behind the mansion, apparently nobody mentioned to him that the x-men liked to keep serial killers in their place. He just about almost killed Sabretooth and Juggernaut when he first saw him. Iceman had to practically shove him off when he was about to kill Mystique. The only thing that was keeping him calm was inhaling the mass load nicotine in his cigarettes.

"You doing any better?" Blade asked as he spotted Johnny sitting outside smoking like crazy. Johnny eyes were blood shot and his hands were shaking a bit, the guy was having it rough. He had already smoked through two cartons by the look of cigarette stubs on the grass.

"Went off again on some of Rogue's team mates."

"Who?"

"Some chick named Wynagrade, and that robot looking chick…Karima." Blade crossed his arms over his chest, squinting at his demon possessed friend. "You sure about that?"

"Hey, Kev. Pretty sure when I go all skull and flames on someone, they're evil!" Johnny snapped as he fumbled with trying to twist the cap of his flask.

"Wynagrade hasn't done that much to the x-men in the past, she's clean." Blade explained after getting info from Cyclops and Rogue.

"Well the woman reeks of death."

Blade shrugged, "Don't know about that, though Karima is more than half machine. Don't know how you count her."

Johnny stood up, "Well what ever she is, she's gonna cause freaking trouble."

"Maybe her program expired." Kevin joked getting a good view of the mass cemetery plot a few yards from the boat house.

"Very funny, man."

_**Mean while in the Dining hall**_**….**

Remy watched as Rogue, Sam, and Bobby sit together across the room.

"Gambit?"

Remy looked at Bishop sitting across from him looking at his right hand. Remy noticed why, he was charging his fork. He absorbed back the energy.

"Desole." He muttered angrily as he tossed the fork to the side. Bishop looked toward the direction Remy was looking at. He saw Rogue and a blond guy sitting together, it was the first time Bishop noticed that she wasn't wearing the bracelet. "What's up with her?" Remy didn't take his eyes off the two when he answered, "She messin' wit' him."

"I don't get, _you_ left her. Years ago might I add. Why are you pissed?" Remy, since morning, had gotten information on the "couple". "He don't deserve her, homme."

Bishop arched an eyebrow at Remy and then looked at the couple. They looked happy and in love.

"Looks like he does. Picture perfect couple to me." It wasn't the best thing to say to the Cajun, but the man seriously needed a dose of reality.

"Too many holes."

"What?"

Remy never answered him; Bishop took one last bite of his food and stood up. "I gotta go check on something, just don't do anything stupid Cajun. You got that?"

Remy still didn't answer him; he kept on watching the two. He saw Sam get up wave goodbye to Rogue and Bobby and walk out.

'_Time to play.'_

He followed Sam outside to the courtyard, setting up an obstacle course or something for class.

"Never t'ought y'do it Guthrie."

Sam turned around; Remy was standing only eight feet away from him. He wished it was a continent between them.He tossed his wrench to the side, "Do what?"

"Play Rogue like that. Kinda beneath you, don't y'think?"

Sam snorted and went back to work, "Yoah the one tah talk."

Remy walked closer to the Southerner. Sam watched him cautiously, making sure the guy didn't pull a fast one. "How would Rogue feel if she found out y'weren't completely honest t'her?"

"'Honest'? Yah sure yah want tah play that card?"

Remy eyes glowed, he put up his hands up in mock surrender; "Don't got any cards up mon sleeves, just de dead truth. Y'got a couple of holes in dat heart of yours. How would Rogue feel if she knew y'were just using her to fill dem up?"

Sam shook his head in disgust, "Ah wouldn't do that tah Rogue. Unlike yah, Ah'm actually honest tah her." He stepped closer to Remy. "Y'see that's what a real man does, he's honest; he doesn't run when the going gets tough."

The two men were basically three inches from each other, "Y' t'ink y'sleek Guthrie?" Remy gave the blond man a slight push away from him. "Huh?" he shoved him again. Sam bit his tongue, while trying not to smirk at the situation going on; he really did want to knock out the Cajun. But he knew that wasn't the best thing to do.

"Wonder how de Rogue will feel if she found out y'still feel a t'ing for Sara." Remy tapped into Sam's emotion. And sure enough he felt something, a slight jump in the other man's heart.

"She doesn't mean a thing tah me."

Remy smirked; he crossed his arms over his chest, content with how things were going panning out. "Who doesn't? Sara or Rogue?"

Sam laughed bitterly, Remy had no clue what had really happened. To him this was all a game. "Nice one Gambit. But if yah tryin' tah make me break Rogue's heart. It's too late, yah did that tah her." He turned around to continue his work.

"Hey, Guthrie." Sam turned around to see three glowing object coming right at him. He hit the ground, as the three small knives exploded when they hit the tree behind him.

Remy started to walk away when he heard Sam's voice. He turned around to see the blond man with a busted lip, and a long bloody gash on his cheek. His blue and black uniform was now torn.

"Up or down?" he asked Remy.

"What?"

Sam put on his goggles, "Me? Ah usually don't care." Before Remy could move Sam rocketed towards him and flew them both in the air at warp speed. Sam held onto Remy as the two went sailing back down and started to bounce around the ground, trees, and the walls of the mansion before Sam body slammed Remy into the ground.

Thanks to Sam's shield, Remy wasn't seriously hurt. Sam pulled on Remy's collar so that the two men's faces were a mere inch apart. "Ah don't have tah defend mah relationship with Rogue, especially tah _yah_. And damn you if yah think that yoah '_charm'_ is gonna get between me and her. Play yoah games on someone else. Ah'm through." He dropped Remy with out a care and walked back inside the mansion.

Remy though laid perfectly still, smiling despite his current stance. If Sam was so sure about his relationship to Rogue, he wouldn't have reacted that badly.

_**Mean while**_**…**

Oliver groaned and swore in French, he hated the morning school rush. Being pushed and shoved by students rushing to use the bathroom, get to breakfast or getting ready was the one thing he really hated about staying at the mansion over night.

"Watch it." Pixie and Rockslide flew past him, making him trip. "Hey!" the girls stopped to turn around, getting bumped by the others who were trying to get by. "We said 'watch it', flame-boy!" they went on their way.

He flipped them off. After using the bathroom, he went back to his room, sitting crossed legged on her bed, a sour look on her face was Rebecca.

"Well, yah look happy." He commented sarcastically. Rebecca ignored him; she got up and shut the door, locking it. She walked over to his sound system, turning up the volume. She winced as loud rap music filled the room.

"What the hell are yah doin'?" Oliver yelled over the music. Rebecca closed her eyes, focusing her energy on her powers to form a shield around them, silencing them from music.

"Again. What the hell are yah doin'?" he repeated. His sister seemed only slight less livid then before, which was a good thing. Sort of.

"The house is filled with psychics and mutants with super sonic hearing. We needed someway to talk."

Oliver looked at his sister; the two had a mental link. Anything one was feeling or thinking, the other one knew. And what she was thinking was insane.

"No! Hell No! We are not tellin' mom." He snapped. Rebecca rolled her eyes, "She lied to us, Oli! She told us he was dead!"

Oliver bit his lip; their mother _had_ told them that. When they were younger they would see Kendall, Nate, and Rachel with their dads.

_--------Reasons (Eight years ago) _--------

Oliver and Rebecca laughed liked crazy as Joe spun them around again in the backyard. "Again daddy." Rebecca begged with a smile still on her face. Joe laughed; he loved the two kids, he loved being a dad.

"Alright, but last one. Ready?"

"YES!"

"Are you sure?"

"YEAH!" He spun them again. Rogue watched the three from the back porch; she loved the site of them playing. Of them having a father in their life.

"Hello?" Rogue turned her head towards the gate, "Hey y'all, come on in." She opened the latch to the gate to let Jean, Scott, Nate and Rachel into the backyard.

"Hey we brought the chips, dips and wine. But that's for later." Jean smiled as she pulled out the bottle of red wine.

Rogue had invited the family to her house for a barbeque; it had been awhile since they could get together without work getting in the way. "Great. We got things all set here." She took the bottle inside to chill until the kids had gone to bed. After eating, chatting, and playing with the kids. It was time to tuck them in. Nate and Rachel were already asleep in another room.

"Good night babies." Rogue cooed as she tucked in her children in their bed. "Mama?" Oliver asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes the best he could. "Where's our dad?"

Rogue felt the blood whoosh into her ears. "What made yah ask that?" She sat on his bed. It was Rebecca that answered her, "Kendall has a daddy; Nate and Rachel have a daddy. We… don't."

"Y'all have Joe."

"But he's not our real dad, is he?" Rogue looked into her son's red on black eyes. Guilt filled her heart every time she looked into his eyes.

"Hopin' tah talk about this when y'all got a bit oldah." She sat crossed legged on her son's bed. Sighing she asked "What do yah want tah know about him?"

Rebecca got out of her bed and crawled into her mother's lap. "Was he nice?"

That question was a little too hard to answer, but Rogue answered it anyway. "Sorta."

"Did he have any powers?"

Rogue laughed, "He could blow things up."

"Really!?" the sparkle in her children's eyes made her laugh again. The two were so excited about one day getting their own powers.

"What did he look like?" Oliver asked as he pulled himself to his mother's side. Rogue held back the tears that threatened to fall. The image of Remy had faded in her mind, she forbid herself from looking at any of his pictures still at the mansion, the ones that the team had stopped her from burning.

"Ah don't remembah." She lied. Oliver's face fell, he wanted to know if he's dad had the same eyes as he did.

"What happened to him?" Rebecca asked again, she looked like she was going to cry. Before Rogue could think of answer, her mouth answered for her. "He died, a while before y'all two were born." The lie was truer than anything else she could think off. He did die when he made the choice to leave her. He had stopped living in her life.

The twins lowered their heads. They knew the meaning of death from being with the x-men. They had so wished to hear that their father was still alive, just waiting for them to find him. "Do you miss him, mama?"

Rogue honestly thought about it, "No, Ah have yah two. That's all Ah need." She pulled them into a big hug.

After she left their room, Rebecca looked up at the ceiling; the glow of night light bounced odd shapes on the ceiling and wall.

"I wanted to meet him." She whispered.

"Me too."

----------**Present**---------

"Do yah think she was trying to protect us from him?" Oliver asked, running his fingers through his hair. Rebecca gave her brother a sarcastic look "Yeah, because a guy who can cook chocolate chip pancakes is really dangerous. But hey, maybe they were poisoned pancakes."

Oliver folded his arms against his chest, "Very funny."

"I want t'tell mama. I want to know why she never told us about him."

Oliver pinched the bridge of his noise; he looked at the clock planted to the wall. Breakfast for the students was about to end. "Are yah crazy!? What the hell are we supposed to say? 'Hey mama, we talked to Gambit, yah know the guy yah told us _not_ t'talk to. Did yah know that was our biological dad'?!"

"No." Rebecca answered softly, "I-I just want to know. Yoah not curious one bit about our real dad?"

Oliver was starting to get impatient with her, "We had a dad, remember? Name was Joe? Took cared us, loved us. _He_ was our real dad."

"Oli, he-"

His eyes flashed dangerously, he held up his hands to stop her from talking. "Just let it go Bekka. I did."

Rebecca let her head drop as the tears started to fall. She lowered down the shield, and watched as Oliver cut of the sound system. He opened the door to see Nate standing there, with a confused look on his face. "I've been knocking for five minutes, you ready to go?"

Oliver nodded as he grabbed his sunglasses from the nightstand and put them on his face. "Oli, we have t'talk about this." Rebecca pleaded with him; they had to know more about Gambit. Why was Oliver being so stubborn over this?

"Let it _go_, Bekka." He threatened her, slamming the door behind him.

"I can't." she said softly to the empty room.

"Something wrong?" Nate asked his cousin; Oliver bit the inside of his cheek. "Nope, j'st Bekka being her usual annoying self."

Nate looked at him, not believing a word he was saying. He was about to say something when they and the rest of the students saw a beat up Sam walk past them.

Oliver and Nate ran to follow him, "Whoa, what happened to yah?"

Sam gave them a blunt answer "Had tah take out the garbage."

He slammed his bedroom door to change, leaving the boys confused and worried about their favorite teacher.

_**Later**_**…**

As Rogue sat in her office she began to fiddle with her engagement and wedding ring that were hanging from a silver chain around her neck. Sam never minded them; he knew how much Joe meant to her. Rogue looked at the pearl and diamond ring as memories of Joe started resurface in her mind.

A loud knock broke Rogue out of her thoughts, she snapped her head up. "It's open."

"Hey, y'alright?" Oliver asked as he walked in. Rogue looked up with a tired smile, "Yeah, just made the mistake of tellin' yah gradma about what happened with Mystique."

"Is she pissed?" Oliver asked with a smile.

"Sugah, that ladah is more scared than a long tailed cat in a room full of rockin' chairs. They miss yah two lahke mad. "

'They' were Pricilla and Owen Black, Rogue's biological parents. The team had found them before the twins were born. They wanted to find them as a surprise to Rogue. The three had gotten very close over the years, talking over the phone and visiting each other. After Joe's death Rogue felt that she couldn't protect her kids from the threats they were receiving in the mansion, so she moved them in with her parents. Everything was going alright until her kids started to develop their powers.

Oliver took a seat on her desk, "Really?" Rogue nodded while smiling, "Yeah, they want yah two tah move back, but Ah don't think Ah can handle paying the school foah damages again."

Oliver seethed, did his mother had to mention that? A couple of days after their twelfth birthday Oliver had burned down the schools gym to ashes. On the other side of the school Rebecca was taking out her anger out on the wall and with that she had managed to bring down the whole west wing of the Caldecott County Jr. High school.

"Ain't yah suppose to be in class?" Rogue asked when she took a look at her watch on her wrist, it was after ten, Oliver took off his sunglasses, the only time he felt comfortable doing so was when he was with his mother and or sister. Other wise he wouldn't dare show his eyes.

"I wanted t'talk to yah."

Rogue frowned, his voice sounded slightly off. "What wrong?" Oliver slid off the desk, "Nothing. I was just kind of curious about something."

"What about?"

"About why yah don't want us to talk to that Gambit guy." Oliver didn't miss the look of alarm on his mother face. He eyed the pen that was melting in her hand. "Um…Mom?" he cocked his chin towards her hand.

Rogue flung the pen away, "Ah just don't want yah two tah be talking tah him."

"Why not? He's Sarah's dad, Cyclops is letting him stay here, and not to mention Kendall loves him." He said the last part through gritted teeth. Rogue began to massage her head, "Look Oli, the guy, despite what Slim or the others say, is not the kind of guy Ah want yah or yoah sister tah hang around with."

"Why not?" He repeated again, Oliver didn't get it; usually he didn't care about the people Rogue held grudges against. But Bekka had threatened to tell her about what had happened so Oliver made a deal with her: as long as she kept her mouth shut, he would find out why their mother never told them about their father.

"Why do yah want tah know about that SOB anyway?" Rogue asked harshly. Oliver winced at his mother tone and at her calling his dad a SOB.

"I just want to know. What did he do to yah that got yah so pissed at him?"

Rogue didn't budge, so Oliver decided to go in for the kill. "Y' said that we weren't supposed to hold secrets from each other and that you would tell us everything." He pointed a finger at her.

Sighing, Rogue crossed her arms, she owed them this much. "There are a couple of things you should know Gambit, Sugah." She laughed bitterly watching Oliver take a seat across from her, "Wonder what Sarah would think she knew about her loving 'daddy's' little secrets."

------------**Teacher's Room**------

Bliss was usually upbeat, despite living with a bunch of annoying teenagers. But after last night, she was in no mood to be pleasant.

"Excuse me, Cyke? Can I talk to Emma and Betsy for a moment please?" Scott looked up at the blue haired woman with a smile. "Yeah, sure."

The two psychics followed her out to the hall. "Well, Bliss. Do what do we owe this pleasure?" Betsy asked oozing faux sincerity.

Bliss crossed her arms, "Care to explain to me why I was holding up my sister's hair while she barfed in the toilet all night?"

Emma smiled, removing any strays of blond hair of her white tube top dress. "Maybe she ate Kitty's dinner. I always said never let that girl anywhere near a kitchen."

"Bull Crap. You know how vulnerable she is against psychic attacks!" She pushed the two ladies against the wall using her powers, "Why the hell did you do that for?"

Emma broke the shield that Bliss was using on her. "She went against her orders."

"She did the right thing, she has morals. Nothing you two ladies would know anything about!" Bliss yelled in their face. Betsy pulled out one of her daggers and pointed it at Bliss's throat, "You want to rephrase that, luv?"

Bliss looked at the weapon with out a care, "Swift didn't tell the guy that he was their father. She just told him how to get along with Rogue. As far as I see it she didn't break any orders."

"She might as well have, if Gambit gets anywhere near those kids then the truth is bound to come out." Emma pointed out.

Bliss wasn't listening, "What is it with you destroying families Em?" She smirked, "I know you had a crappy little family, but do you have to destroy everyone else's chance of having a family?"

Emma eyes flared in anger, "You should be careful to what you say Bliss, other wise you might get one of Betsy little psychic knives in your head like your dear sister did." Emma and Betsy watched in joy at the dark shade of red over taking Bliss's face "Besides, I'm just doing our dear Rogue a favor, sweetie. That Gambit is someone that shouldn't be taken too lightly; from what I heard he's a regular Cajun _snake_."

Bliss bit the inside of her cheeks, she took a step closer towards the two "You know my sister and I watched while you took Scott away from Nate and Rachel. From Jean. I'm not going to let that happen again."

Betsy for just a few seconds felt a bit guilty at the mention of her friend's name. It was true; she and Emma were doing somewhat the same thing Emma did to Jean. But, she kept reminding herself, that Gambit had no right to step in and swoop down on Rogue's life. He made the decision to leave her all those years ago; he didn't deserve a second chance.

"You're not honestly comparing me to Gambit, are you?" Emma asked with a hand on her chest, clearly insulted. Bliss shook her head, "Nope, I'm comparing Gambit to Jean."

"It always has to comeback to her, doesn't it?" Emma scoffed, "Yeah, it does." She turned her back on the two and walked away.

Betsy hung back in the hall by herself. It was something that Emma had just said that made her wonder.

_If Gambit gets anywhere near those kids then the truth is bound to come out_

She bit her lower lip, living in the x-men mansion she had seen the truth come out in various occasions. With the same results every time.

Causalities.

------ **Later that afternoon** -----

"Oliver?"

'Terrific.' He turned around, "Hey…um Gambit." He gave the older man a two finger salute and looked around the room to see if his mom or any teachers were watching him. Fortunately, his mom was at a meeting and none of the other teachers seemed to notice him.

"Bonjour. Thought y'and I could get a bite t'eat or somet'ing." Gambit told him nicely. He had spent some time with Rebecca and truly had taken a liking to the girl. Just talking and hanging out, even showing her a couple of card tricks to use on her friends. Even though Swift said that she was the best way to get to Rogue. Gambit had his own agenda.

Oliver felt his glasses start to slip and hastily pushed them back into place. "No thanks." He started to walk out to the courtyard where Cyclops and some other students were doing track and field.

Gambit followed him, not wanting to give up on his little plan. "About what happened last night, sorry if I scared y'. Just thought I could help y' with your eye problem."

Oliver pushed his glasses back again.

"Yah didn't scare me."

Gambit rubbed the stubble on his chin; he couldn't sense the fear Oliver was feeling. But he could see it. "So is dat why y'ran out of de kitchen like I was de devil?"

Oliver ignored him and went back to looking for his sister. After hearing the things his mother told him. He didn't think the guy should be allowed on the campus.

He froze when he felt Gambit's hand on his shoulder. "Look I already know dat y'mere warned y'about moi. Mais, I t'ought I could help y'out with your eyes."

Oliver shrugged his hand off, "No thanks."

Much to his dismay Gambit continued to follow him; can the guy not get the hint?

"Mon ami, I am j-"

Oliver shoved him, "I'm not your friend!" he pushed back his glasses again.

Gambit looked at the boy, dusting himself off. "Y're right, I'm not your friend. I'm j'st tryin' t'be t'ough."

Their little spat was starting to gain attention from the students and teachers in the field. They were wondering what the two could be arguing about. Cyclops started to notice his students declining attention. "Hey, listen up!" but none of them turned their heads towards him. "What is it that you all are looking at?" he looked over at what they were watching. "Damn it."

"Why do you care so much if I got a problem with my eyes?" Oliver growled getting annoyed at the man and his glasses. Was it just him or were they slipping more that usual?

"Well…y'step-dad didn't seem t'help –"

"Hedid help!" he snapped. He could hear Cyclops and Iceman shout his name but he didn't pay any attention to them.

"Really?" Gambit lowered his sunglasses and could see the lump in Oliver's throat rise. "Den why can't y'take off your glasses if he helped you so much?"

Oliver looked at Gambit's red on black eyes; he looked so much like his dad. At that moment he could remember himself being little and looking at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. Wondering where he could have gotten his eyes from, everyone he would ask in the mansion kept their mouth zipped about the truth. Everyone was hiding from him.

"Because I don't feel like it, okay?" he snapped, he could Rogue running towards them. "I never asked to have my dad's freak eyes!"

Gambit smirked; he nonchalantly took out a cigarette from his coat and lit the end. He inhaled deeply and blew out the puff of smoke. "Thought y'never met your pere."

Oliver noticed his slip up, 'Damn it!' he pushed back his sunglasses up. Again. "Get the hell away from me." He growled menacingly at him. Screw the fact that he was his biological father, the man never was a _real_ dad to him. And he never wanted him to be.

"Don't t'ink so."

Oliver gave him one last look before he started to walk towards his mother and the rest. But Gambit pulled on the back of his shirt forcefully to the ground, that's when it happened: Oliver's glasses _flew_ off.

"Crap." He shut his eyes tightly and looked blindly for his glasses, but it was too late Gambit had already seen his eyes.

"I t'ought so." He watched his son continue looking; he bent down and gave his son his own sunglasses to wear. "After last night, I figured it out. Y n' Bekka looked _too_ shocked about mon eyes."

"So?"

"Y'live in a mansion full of _mutants_, red on black eyes ain't de weirdest t'ing here."

"OLIVER!" he heard Cyclops, Rogue, and the rest shout when they got to the two. Gambit looked down at his son, "Gentil fils d'essai, mais your playin' wid an old timer." He looked at the crowd and spotted out Rogue. (Nice try son, but)

"_Chere?"_ he indicated to her to follow him back into the mansion. Rogue took one last look at her son before wordlessly following the Cajun back inside.

As Oliver watched his mom and Gambit leave the others helped him of the ground, "You okay?" Bobby asked him.

"No, I'm not." He went back inside to look for Bekka.

---------**Class room**-----

"Hey Rogue." Sam stopped short to hug her when he saw Gambit in tow. He gazed at the man who earlier had tried to kill him.

"What does he want?" he didn't take his eyes of Gambit as he stood in front of Rogue protectively.

"_Mon chere_ and I need t'have a little chat." He took a seat on the teacher's desk. "So get out." He spat out angrily.

Sam was about to lunge at him, but Rogue pulled him back. "Sugah, just leave, please. We do reallah have tah talk." Sam looked at Gambit then back at Rogue, he titled her chin up with his gloved hand (she didn't have the bracelet on) to make her look at him. "He hurts yah in anyway-."

"He won't Sugah." Gambit looked away when Sam took Rogue's gloved hands and kiss them. Rogue watched him leave, leaving her yet again with Gambit.

Gambit slid off the desk, "Now dat he's gone-"

_SLAP _

"_Merde_!" Rogue had slapped him hard on the face. Gambit held a hand to his sore red cheek, the hit stung. "What de hell was dat for?"

"That was foah touching mah son!"

He laughed bitterly, "Y'mean _our_ son. He's my son, not t'mention Bekka is my daughter!"

Rogue sulked quietly, laying her back against the wall. "By blood onlah Cajun."

"What does dat mean?"

"It means that yah have no right calling them your kids when yah were never there!" Rogue yelled.

"Because y'never tol' me about dem!" Gambit yelled back. He backed away from her and rested his hands on the back of his head and started to laugh again. "Y'piece of work, y'know dat?"

Rogue didn't respond to him.

"Y'know how many times I wrote letters and called you? Do y'know how many times I came up here t'try t'talk to you n' t'tell you I was sorry? After all dis time I kept t'inking I was de bad guy. But you…what did y'tell our kids about moi?"

Rogue looked up at the ceiling, praying for energy to get through this. She pushed herself from the wall, "Ah told them you were dead."

"You piece of –"

"It's the truth!" she screamed, "As soon as yah left that damn _note_ on my bed yah basically wrote your self out of mah life."

"I got scared! Y'were always talking about having a family and stuff. I wasn't ready for all of dat."

"Yeah, when I got older. Not when Ah was nineteen!" she paused, it then hit her. He didn't leave because he got tired of her. "Is that you ran away? Because yah thought Ah wanted tah start a family with yah?"

Gambit looked down on the ground, sensing the hysteria in her voice. "Maybe." It was Rogue's turn to laugh. "Rogue?" he rolled his eyes as she continued to laugh. It wasn't that funny, it wasn't funny at all.

Laughing was the only way to let her anger out, Gambit was her first boyfriend. All she ever wanted from him at that time was just him. Besides what they had was just teen romance, to her looking back it was never the real deal. "Who told yah that Ah wanted a family with yah? Of all the men in the world why would have Ah chosen yah?"

Gambit froze, thinking the question over in his head. Rogue stopped laughing; her green eyes were burning with anger, he could practically see the flames dancing in her eyes. She so badly wanted to hurt him like he did to her all those years ago.

"De guys, dey said dat y'wanted a fam-"

Rogue held up a gloved finger, "The guys? Didn't know they were inside mah head."

Gambit gave her a look.

"Yah know what Ah mean!" She turned her back on him, looking down at the floor while she spoke. "We-Ah…Who knows what would have happened Remy. We were just kids at the time" She covered her mouth with her hand when she noticed what she had just said. But it was too late to take it back.

Gambit walked towards her, putting a gloved hand on her covered shoulder. "Dat's de first time y'called me by my name." He started to remember the day when he and Rogue were younger, when all they could do was hold each other and talk. Those were the days he remembered when he missed her.

He turned her around and made her look at him. Gambit could feel Rogue tense up at his touch, but he didn't care. Rogue could feel his hands on her waist, her head felt fuzzy. She wanted to cuss him out but her tongue felt heavy and thick. She wanted to shove him off, to slap him again but her arms felt like lead. Hell, she had to at least warn him about the damn death touch now. Then she realized it. That damn snake had her glued to his _eyes_; she was deep in red and black that she never felt her back pressed against the wall. He had her cornered.

Gambit lowered his mouth near her ear, "Mon belle, I'm sorry dat I left. I wanted t'come back. I did come back. Y'want t'know why?"

She didn't answer him, so he continued anyway.

"I still loved y'. I came back t'you because I wanted you again. I wanted y' love, y' heart." He slid his hands up and down on her waist then brought one hand to her heart; he could feel it pounding in her chest. "I wanted everyt'ing."

Rogue licked her lips, she knew it was wrong, hell she had a boyfriend. But she was deep that everything he was whispering in her ears was sending delightful shivers down her spine.

"But dat was den. Now…I j'st want my kids."

His cold voice snapped her out of it.

"What?"

"I. Want. My. Kids." He bit off his words angrily.

Rogue shook of that pleasant feeling building in her, his words took her back into reality. "Lahke hell!" She pushed him off her, disgusted that she almost fell for his charms.

"Thirteen years, Rogue. For thirteen years, I never got t'see my kids. I never met mon pere, I made a promise t'myself dat when I had kids dat I was gonna be dere for dem. I was going t'be wid dem." He paused to see her head lowered in shame, she knew about his history with is dad. "Y'made me break dat promise." he started to pace around the room, his heart felt like someone was squeezing. He could feel the tears start to sting his eyes, but he forbid himself to cry for something that had already been done with. He was never going to get back the time he missed with his kids. And he had Rogue to thank for that.

The tension in the room was thick that not even a chain saw could cut through. The one time lovers couldn't bear to look at each other without resentment showing in their eyes.

"I want custody of dem."

Rogue chuckled, "Cajun, yah can keep asking. But the answer will be the same. No."

"Y'owe me dat much Rogue. Yah lucky I'm not askin' for full custody for all de BS y'pulled." He watched as anger consumed her body, her fingers where itching to whip off her gloves. Damn the consequences. "Yah wouldn't dare!" Her fists were consumed in flames. Gambit could feel her wanting to strike him again.

"I'm a man of many t'ing, chere. One of dem being fair. I j'st want what I ask for: joint custody."

Rogue pretended to think it over, tapping a finger against her chin "Lordy, let me think about it…No!"

She started to walk out but Gambit pulled her back. "Chere, I am givin' y' a chance here." She snatched her arm away from him.

"Yah don't get it do you?" she pulled out the chain holding her rings. "Mah children already have a dad. A damn good one at that too. He loved them and stuck by them."

She stared him down, poking him in the chest rather hard, "Joseph was never scared of a commitment. You, though, were just scared at the thought of one. Tell me, _Remy, _all those times when yah said that yah loved me, that Ah was yoah heart and all the shit. Were you telling me the truth?"

Gambit didn't blink; he got real close to her face. "I loved you, I was crazy for you. Now I m wondering why t'ough."

The hurt look on his face was obvious. He knew that he was the first one to wreck the relationship, but he did come back to try to fix it many times but she was never there. What Gambit had done to Rogue was nothing compared to what she did to him.

Rogue sighed shaking her head in disappointment, "Yoah _honest_ with the people you love, Gambit. Otherwise, it's a gamble."

Gambit let out a low whistle. She was being a hypocrite.

"Dat's a bit redundant coming from y'. Aint y'de one who told our children dat I was dead?"

Rogue had it with him, she raised her hand to slap him again but something caught her wrist. She turned around

Make that someone.

"Can't let you hit him. I got dibs on this fool first. So that means you'll have to wait your turn." Bishop released her wrist; he had heard them bickering rather loudly from the hall.

Gambit watched her ready to leave, but he wanted to have the last word.

"So dat's it, _chere_? All I ever was to y'was a good fuck, huh?"

Rogue licked her lips; she leaned against the door frame wanting to make the last hit as low as possible. With a hand on her hip she answered him "Actually, _sugah_, yah weren't that good at all." She slammed the door hard behind her.

Bishop watched Gambit throw two knives where she had just stood a minute ago. He let the Cajun breath a little before he slapped him,

"Ow!" Gambit rubbed the back of his head, "Dieu, what de hell was dat for?" He thought his friend was on his side.

"What did I say about not doing anything stupid?"

_**Mean while in the dorm hall…**_

Oliver was angry.

Actually that was an understatement. He was pissed.

"REBECCA!" he yelled through the hall way. All of the doors open, some students who were taking a study a break poked their heads out to see who yelling.

"Yah know _frere_ this is a school. First thing they usually teach yah is to use your inside voice." She smirked.

Oliver had smoke coming out of his ears, literally. "Yah got two seconds to explain before that smirk gets burned off your face." he held up his fired fist in front of her face. "Geez, Oli. Chill why don't you?" she pushed away his fist from her face. Rebecca smiled innocently, flipping a piece of red-brown hair over her shoulder. Oliver bit his tongue to keep from cussing her out. "Bull shit! I know what yah did! That was f-ing' low." She rolled her eyes at him, "So I made the truth _slip_ a bit-"

"A lot, actually. Merde, what the hell were yah thinking?"

"I was thinking that our dad had the right to know about us!" she could see his mouth open, but cut him off.

"And before yah start on that 'he's not our dad', get this: he is our dad, whether yah like it or not."

Oliver was starting to taste the blood in his mouth. "The man was never here!"

"Because she never told him about us! Face it Oli, all that 'honesty' mom was preaching was a bunch of crap!"

Oliver massaged the back of his neck, "You're actually taking his side in all this? You don't even know him!"

"I talked to him this morning, he's nice." Oliver rolled his eyes at his sister's stupidity. "Really? You talked to him this morning? Wow then you must really know the guy!" he snapped sarcastically. His sister was about to walk back to their room, but he stopped her. "Right now because of that BS you pulled mom is fighting with that guy."

"You mean she's fighting with _dad_." She loved the look of pure detest on her twin brother's face.

"Do you even know anything about the guy? Besides the crap he told you." He hissed at her.

Rebecca pressed her lips together, tapping her foot impatiently. "I don't care." She started to walk away again, but he wouldn't let her.

A couple of students were starting to watch them with interest. The twins hardly fought while at their stay at the mansion. This was an interesting show down.

"Did you know that the guy fought _with_ Magneto?" He could tell by her expression that her opinion of him slipped a little, working for the man that killed their step-dad was a minus point.

"He worked with Sinister, Bekka!"

"But that's all in the past now!"

Oliver started to notice the crowd watching them was growing, he saw Sarah watching them with confusion.

"Bekka," he walked closer to his sister so that he wouldn't be over head "He helped kill Sarah's family. The only reason he cares for her is because he feels guilty."

Rebecca held back the tears wanting to fall, "That's not true." She whispered.

"That's how Gambit works; he makes yah want to trust him. He's not nice. He's j'st another cheating lying snake."

Rebecca started smile cruelly "Like mom? Didn't she cheat us out of knowing our real dad? She lied just as much as he did."

Oliver growled angrily, she was really being selfish. "Vous êtes une chienne." Rebecca flipped him off, ignoring the gasp coming from the crowd.

Nate and Kendall started to shove through. "What is going on here?" Kendall asked Anole, the green mutant didn't take his eyes off the fighting twins. "Don't know, but what ever it is. It's not gonna end pretty."

"Sarah?" Nate looked over at his pink haired teammate. "They found out about Gambit."

Kendall and Nate could feel their heart sink to their stomach. Both were thinking the same thing. 'Crap!'

"Yah know I can handle a lot crap from you, but this…you're basically turning your back on mom." Oliver shouted at her. "When yah stop having your little daddy complex, come back to your senses."

Rebecca was resolute, "Mom turned her back on us, Oli. Face it, she's a liar."

She could see the muscle in her brother's jaw tick, a sign of him getting impatient. "Yah want to take that back?"

"No."

He nodded his head, rubbing the back of his neck in agitation. "Yah don't mean that."

"Yeah, I do."

That was the last straw for him; he lunged at his sister, who was ready to punch him in the face. But something was holding him back.

"Are you insane?" Kendall and Nate were trying to pull him back,

Rebecca was still yelling while Sarah and Frank were trying to hold her back, but she was too strong for them.

Sarah looked at the spectators, "Hey, you all want to help us a bit?"

Laura, Pixie and Surge struggled to help pull Sarah into their room, David and Daken pulled Oliver to another corner of the hall.

"You might want to handle your teammates better, Kendall." Daken sneered before walking away with David.

Kendall stuck out her tongue at her half-brother retreating back. "Jerk!"

Nate took a deep breath in, "What the hell is wrong-"

_POW _

Oliver punched Nate right in the face with his fired up fist, leaving a beauty of a burn mark across his face.

"Oliver!" Kendall was shocked, she knew that he had a temper but he never once hit his friends.

Oliver pushed Nate against the wall, grabbing him by his shirt. "Yah knew didn't you? Yah knew that he was my dad and you never told me!"

Kendall tried to pull him off but Nate stopped her.

"Yes, I knew." Oliver let him go as if Nate physically burned him.

"I don't believe yah, I told yah everything I knew about Emma and Cable! And you still couldn't tell me about _this_?!"

"Cyclops made us promise not to tell you."

Oliver knitted his eyebrows in confusion, "'Us'?"

Nate decided if he was going to tell the truth, he might as well tell everything. "We all knew, we just didn't want you guys to get hurt."

"A little too late for that." He chuckled, "Anything else yah wanna t'tell me? Do I got a half brother out there or somethin'?"

"No, look-"

Kendall cut him off, she put a supporting hand on Oli's forearm, but he shrugged her off. She didn't hide her hurt look. Oliver was always willing to trust her, now that trust was broken, along with friendship. "Oli, we're sorry. We know we should have told you. But-"

Oliver held up his hands to stop her, "Stop, j'st stop." He sighed, today was leaving him tired and depressed. "All those times we promised that we would tell each other everything, that we would be better than our parents are basically bull, aren't they?"

"Oli."

He didn't hear them; he didn't want to hear them. He fired up and flew out of the nearest open window. In the sky he looked around the campus for a place of solitude, he decided on the school roof.

Once he landed he was surprised to see Aliyah already there, her arms holding her legs close to chest. She looked liked she had been crying.

All of his frustration left him seeing her like that; she was usually the strong one of the team.

"Yah alright?'

Aliyah let out a breath, it helped her a bit. The feeling of weight against her chest disappeared.

"I just found my dad."

Oliver was sure his jaw was on the floor. What the hell was going on today?

--------**Class room**------

"So what did he do?" Bishop asked Remy after they got through telling each other about talking to their children.

"Yelled, what did your kid do?"

Bishop shrugged, "She pulled a gun on me." Remy looked at his friend; he was so calm when he said it. "Y'win."

"Not the kind of thing that I want to beat you at Gambit."

Remy smiled taking out another cigarette from his coat pockets. He needed something to cool his nerves after his little chat with Rogue.

"Well, y'always said dat I was gonna be a moche pere. Y'win dat bet." (lousy dad) Remy exhaled.Bishop waved the filthy air away from him "Never really meant it, I didn't think any woman was crazy enough to actually breed with you."

"Could say de same t'ing about you. What woman was crazy enough t'sleep wid you?"

"Cal'syee."

Remy froze; he could see Bishop look at the ground sadly. Deathbird (Cal'syee) was Bishop's first love. He remembered those times when Bishop and he would get drunk in the clubs; Bishop would start telling him about her. Their relationship ended on a bad note.

"I didn't mean it homme."

Bishop waved him off, "Not your fault."

The two sat there for a while silently, not knowing what else to say or do.

"Hey, at least we got each ot'ers back?"

"Brothers till the end, when ever that may come." He bumped fist with the Cajun. Remy was feeling bit better again till it hit him. _Brothers_?

He was so involved about finding out whether the kids were really his that he completely forgot about what Bekka had said to him earlier.

_Nope, we just know that he's Scott's brother_

"MERDE!" Remy slid of the desk, "Where the hell are you going?" Bishop yelled after Remy but he never heard him, he ran straight to Scott's office.

"Gambit?" The man had burst right through Scott's office unannounced. "Can I help with something?" Scott looked at him; the man looked like he was going through hell,

"Gambit, huh? Y'can't call me what I really am?"

Scott dropped what he was doing, and sat up straight. "I would, but it wouldn't be polite." Scott didn't feel like dealing with Remy at the moment, or any moment for that matter.

"Now is dat anyway t'talk to your big brother?" Remy asked.

Scott could feel his blood freeze after hearing those words. He could see Remy's red eyes were flashing with anger; his hands were glowing bright pink. But what Scott couldn't see though were the tiny knives hidden in Remy's hands

_**Mean while on the roof….**_

"My dad didn't actually ran out on my mom and me like I thought, apparently he got stuck here after going on a mission for Shi'ar."

Oliver sat down next to her. "I found out my biological dad was alive all this time, and every one in the mansion already knew."

"You win." She sighed, she clapped her hands on her knees "So, who is he?"

"Sarah's dad."

"You mean that Gambit guy?"

Oliver nodded his head.

Aliyah let out a low whistle; she stretched out her legs, feeling the tension leave her body. At least some one was in the same situation she was in.

"If it makes you feel any better, I didn't know." Oliver threw Gambit's sunglasses to the side. He didn't care anymore about his eyes, it seemed so frivolous now.

"Helps a bit." She scooted closer to him, letting him rest his head on her shoulder. "What did you do when yah found out about your dad?"

"Pulled out a gun."

Oliver laughed for real this time, Aliyah was always able to cheer him up; she was like a big sister to him. "And we thought our family was screwed before."

"Oliver." Oliver looked to see the Stepford Cukoos talking to him, they had flew up from the mansion to find him He groaned under his breath at the sight of the blond triplets. One more comment about his hair and Emma was gonna be missing three clones.

"What's your damage Heathers?" Aliyah covered her mouth to keep from laughing at Oliver's zing.

The cuckoos rolled their eyes in unison. "Doofus. Your sister and your mother had a fight."

"So?"

"She said she was going to leave with Gambit."

Oliver swore and started to fly back into the mansion, 'That girl is gonna be the death of me.'

-------**Cyclops's office**--------

Rogue stepped into Scott's office to see his glass and metal desk gone. Glass and metal fragments covered the entire rug, or what ever was left of the rug.

The whole room looked like a war had erupted.

"Scott?" she saw him stand by his far window (all of the windows were destroyed as well), his hair was a mess not to mention that he had cuts all over his face and the rips on his uniform were caked with blood. "What the hell happened?"

Scott threw his broken ruby glasses to the floor, replacing them with his optic visors that he always kept on him.

"What do you think?" Remy had managed to blow up his desk, chairs, and everything else. He stepped through the mess on the floor to get to her. "What are you doing here anyway?"

Rogue smoothed down her silver and green uniform, she didn't appreciate Scott's sarcasm, but she decided to ignore it. No matter how the idea of fighting with him made her feel better. "We have a meeting with Jamie today, remember?"

"Right," he picked up a family photo from the ground. The frame was cracked, but the picture wasn't damaged.

Rogue was biting on her lower lip, something that she did when she was agitated or nervous. "You alright?' Scott asked his friend.

"Just had a fight with Bekka." She swallowed the lump that was threatening to rise. "She told me that she hates me."

Scott could tell Rogue was shaken; she had a healthy relationship with her kids. Now it was all messed up in less than a day.

"Welcome to the club."

"What club?"

"The 'My child hates me' club, you'll be receiving your welcome package in the mail." Scott joked; he barely missed the fire ball she tossed at him.

"Hey!"

Rogue bit her gloved finger in mock innocence, "Sorry, it slipped."

"I'll bet."

"Whoa! What happened here Summers?" Jamie Madrox had just walked in. The youngest member of the original new x-men was now head of X-factor, an investigation group, working along side with Rahne, Siryn, and a couple of other former x-men. He had grown up to be a great leader and boss. No longer was he the little kid who everyone picked on, he was taller now and a lot tougher. He removed his long black trench coat, laying it on what used to be a couch, revealing his signature green and gold t-shirt. Jamie was having a hard time walking through the mansion, remembering what had happened four years ago. Neither he, nor the rest ever got over it; from Scott's office he could see part of the cemetery. That night was something he would never forget.

"Madrox, nice to see you again." Scott replied bitterly as Jamie gave Rogue a bear hug. "Wish I could say the same, Summers. Where's Frostie?" he asked curtly.

"My _wife_ is teaching a class right now."

Jamie could see Scott hands were getting closer to his visor. "Is that what you call her? Me and the rest all call her Miss Bi-"

"Whoa Sugah!" Rogue got between the two men, not wanting them to fight. Jamie had never forgiven Scott for what he did to Jean, especially after what they all went through together. "Can we just get through one meetin' with out y'all tearing each others throat?" Rogue begged.

Jamie backed off, but his eyes were still glued to Scott's "Show of disrespect was unnecessary and uncool, sorry." He jerked his thumb towards the hall, "Saw the Cajun outside, take it he didn't take the news so nicely." He teased, eyeing Scott's office once more

"What do you think?"

"Things have changed," Jamie scratched the back of his neck, getting more uncomfortable by the minute in the mansion. "We're not teenagers anymore. We never liked secrets back then, and we still don't like them today. Can't blame the guy for freaking out."

"Madrox." Scott didn't want him to start going through memory lane "What do you have for us?"

Jamie took out a bunch of papers and files from the bag he set on the ground while walking in. He passed the copies to them.

"Team and I found Sinister's little hide out, it's out in Washington DC. Seem like the guy's ready for one hell of a science project."

Rogue and Cyclops looked at the colorful pictures of Sinister and his crew fixing a rather large machine. There were three tables in the background with legs and arms straps, along with. In another picture a large screen showed an image of what appeared to a CAT scan, the stats next to the image were hard to read.

"Why DC?" Rogue asked, usually Sinister liked to pick a place a little more secluded and hard to find.

Jamie pulled out more photos and documents, "His base is less than a mile from Pentagon. My guess is what he's planning involves some form of breaking into private government programs. Like he did with the damn Legacy Virus or Stryker…" he broke off. The mood in the room shifted to maudlin, Rogue did her best not to look outside at the graveyard.

"Well, anyway. Rogue you got major problems."

"Tell me about Sugah."

Jamie flipped a couple of pages of his files and shoved them towards Rogue. "Sinister somehow found out about Gambit and the kids."

"What? How?" Cyclops and her looked through, sure enough the result of the blood test taken a couple of days ago were in their hands.

"Someone managed to send that from _here_. We tried to find out who emailed it but the email address doesn't seem to exist anymore."

They're many teachers who used the computers at the mansion, each with their own set of email addresses, passwords and access codes. Who ever did this had access to the medical files. Beast had just returned from his mission and Swift had too much ethics to pull such a stunt.

"Plus," Jamie flipped a few more pages "recognize this?" He asked Rogue.

Rogue squinted at the small print on top, the date on the corner showed that the message was sent the day her and her team were on their mission.

"Lordy." The message was full of sensitive information about her, her children and the rest of the x-men. "These were sent from the black bird. How could they get their hands on these?"

"Cable can hack through anything. Maybe he's working with Sinister?"

Rogue smacked Scott upside his head; he was talking about his own son, not to mention her friend.

"Cable wouldn't do this to us."

"He and Sinister have just as much history as we do with him."

Jamie hated to admit that Scott did have a point; Cable had a way with breaking into computer files with out leaving a trace.

"What about that new girl?" Jamie asked "That cyborg you all saved from that hospital? Cant she talk to computers?"

Rogue shook her head not wanting to believe that someone on her team could betray like this, "Karima? No way, Mystique is probably behind this, she's been-"

Scott cut her off "She's been KO since you all got back from your base in Mississippi." He reminded her, "Rogue, some of this stuff was sent afterwards. And you have to admit Karima had been acting a little weird since then, along with Regina."

Jamie flipped over to the last page, "Before we start to point fingers. Anyone recognize this man?"

Scott and Rogue looked at the picture; it was Sinister having a very deep conversation with…Gambit.

"Oh, Gawd." Rogue felt like she was going to throw up. The date on the bottom of the picture showed it was from four days before Gambit and his buddies came.

"The Rajun' Cajun strikes again." Jamie smiled in triumph, he wanted to see the shocked look on his friend's faces once they found out they were harboring an acquaintance of an enemy.

"What's he there for?" Scott asked him.

"The surveillance footage we got doesn't record voices, besides Sinister can pick up the frequency too easily. What ever he was there for he took a while. He was with Sinister for eight hours. We got more picture of him visiting Sinister before this was taken."

It didn't make any sense why would Remy still have ties to Sinister after everything?

"Do you think he's trying to pull a trick on us or something?"

_BOOM_!

The explosion shook the office, throwing the three off their feet. "What the hell was that?"

-----**Swift's bedroom**-------

Swift opened her eyes; looking around the room she felt something was wrong. While Nightcrawler was away on a mission, she was the residential teleporter for the team. Swift's power allowed her to transfer herself and anyone else to any place, time, or dimension. Not only that, but she could sense when other portals were opening up.

And right now, she felt one opening in the mansion. The energy radiating from it was pure evil. 'I got to get to Scott." She threw the sheets and pulled herself out of bed.

--------**Cyclops's office**-----

A familiar portal appeared before them. Swift, who was supposed to sick, fell out with a loud thump. She didn't try to pick her self up. The impact sent pain through out her side.

"Swift!" they went over to help their friend. But she declined their help "There's a portal opening in the med lab." She groaned

Scott pulled on his skull cap, ready for battle.

"Jamie, get Swift back to her room. Rogue, we'll go check out the med lab."

------_**Earlier in the med lab**_-------

"Bobby?" Bliss walked into the pit to see the man sitting next to Mystique, holding her hand. "How's Miss Blue?"

He groaned, "Not any different from yesterday.

"I'm an idiot, aren't I?" Bobby suddenly asked looking at Bliss desperately for advice.

"Do you want my opinion as a friend or a shrink?"

Bobby gave her a sour look, "Which ever won't cost two hundred dollars." He watched her lean back against her seat.

"Dude, you're falling for the woman who tried to kill you and your friends many, MANY times. Just be happy that your little fling didn't go too far." She knew Bobby and Mystique had only been working together for a couple of months. There was no way they could.

"Define 'far'."

Bliss shrugged, "Well like telling her you loved her or sleeping with her." She laughed at the idea. Bobby wasn't that stupid.

But then again, she was talking to _Bobby_. Hell, this was the same guy who asked Lorna out on a date right after Havok broke up with her. Plus, he wasn't looking at her.

"Bobby? You-You didn't _sleep_ with Mystique, did you?"

"Maybe…" he mumbled into his free hand.

"Ew." Bliss could feel her skin crawl off her body. She rubbed her hands up and down on her arms unconsciously to calm herself. "Okay, just tell me this. You didn't do it on the black bird, did you? Because I don't think I can handle that."

"We didn't do it on the black bird." He snapped, he took a second to breathe before explaining, "It was after Rogue absorbed the Hetacomb. We were in her old house and we got to talking; she and I were getting so close. We just felt so comfortable with each other, you know?"

Bliss was still trying to comprehend his little situation. "No."

Bobby sighed, "You think this weird, don't you?"

"Kind of. I just find it creepy that you and her shacked up in her home though." She scooted a bit away from them, "What did Rogue and Sabretooth say when they found out?"

Bobby shifted uneasily in his seat, "They…um, don't know yet." He stood up to get a cup of water from the bathroom.

"You better hope they never find out, otherwise you're gonna be Sabretooth personal scratching post if he ever found out about you hooking up with his ex."

"I know Bliss." He sat down next to Mystique again, pushing back some red hair off her face. She looked so peaceful for a woman who was ready to kill her daughter. Bobby rubbed a lock of her red hair between his fingers, remembering the night he had the chance to run his fingers through her hair the first night they consummated their relationship.

"You don't love her, do you?" Bliss asked him.

"I'm not sure. I care for her though; even after all she did to us. I still care for her. Scary thing is I don't think I can stop now." He took Mystique's hand with his.

"Look Bobby, I know how your relationship with Jubilee ended, not to mention all that crap that happened between you and Havok over Lorna and Annie. If you think this relationship is worth it. Then you got my support."

Bobby arched his eyebrows in surprise. He believed her, for two second.

"You don't mean it, do you?"

"Nope," she smiled, "but I will have my waste basket ready when Mystique pulls your heart out of your chest."

He threw his empty plastic cup at her. "Thanks."

Something behind Bliss got Bobby's attention. "Isn't your sister sick?"

"Yeah."

"Then whose portal is that?"

The portal was like a black hole. Lady Mastermind stepped through pointing her gun right at them.

Bobby and Bliss stood up, ready to fight.

"Wyngarde, what the hell are you up to?"

Lady Mastermind smiled sinisterly, "Sorry, Drake. But I'm gonna have to take Miss Blue from you. Hope you don't mind."

She fired at him, but Bliss was able to create a shield around the both of them.

"Oh, yeah. Because that's gonna work." Lady Mastermind pulled out a power neutralizer dart gun pointing it at Bliss.

Bliss didn't have time to react; already she could feel the drug work through her system. Making her useless in the fight. "Bobby, get out of here!"

Bobby though wasn't listening; he already changed into his ice form. "You're not getting out here alive Wyngarde." He threatened the blond mutant.

She battered her eyelashes at him, but her smile was demonic "Ooh, is Mister. Popsicle actually threatening me? I'm scared now."

She fired at him, but he was able to dodge. He threw a bunch of ice shards at her, but she deflected each one.

Suddenly to their relief the door opened. "Karima! Help me, she's flipping out!" Bliss begged. With one look at Karima they knew something wasn't right. Her brown eyes were now pure red like she was possessed, but that wasn't right. She was half human/half robot, she couldn't get possessed. Bobby looked at the collar strapped around her neck, the symbol on it looked familiar.

"I don't think that's Karima…"

Bobby felt his stomach churn; he knew that symbol form anywhere. It was the one Lorna had on when she was possessed by

"Malice. How did you-?" he asked not lowering down his defenses. He remembered what he had to go through when the entity had taken control of Lorna. Malice pulled out a grenade; her fingers were right on the pin.

"Malice has gone digital now, my dear Drake."

She pulled the pin.

-------**Now in the med lab**------

"Oh, God."

Scott and Rogue ran into the room to find Mystique gone from her bed. Bliss was on the floor covered with debris and knocked out cold.

"What's that?" Scott took a better look at what appeared to be glass covering the floor, but he soon realized that it was ice. He saw Bobby's shredded jacket lying not to far from him.

Scott suddenly felt like he was falling through a hole. He put a hand to his mouth not wanting to throw up. His friend was blown up into pieces around him.But to his surprise Rogue didn't seem to care; she stepped over to Bliss, checking the woman's pulse.

To Rogue's relief there was one.

"They-they killed Bobby." His throat felt dry, he couldn't handle another death.

Rogue scooped up Bliss in her arms, "They didn't kill him. Just give him a minute Scott, he has pull himself together."

Scott was about to go off on her about not caring about her teammates, when he started to notice the ice pieces start to move closer together and started to rebuild into Bobby.

'How-when did you learn how to do that?" Scott asked amazed. Bobby ignored his question, "We have to get upstairs." He was ready to leave but Scott pulled him back.

"You just got blown up, give yourself a second."

Bobby pushed Scott away from him, "You two don't get it. Karima and Regan are marauders. This was just a distraction. Sinister planned all of this."

Scott turned in alarm to Rogue, but she was already gone.

-------_** Earlier in Front yard**_--------

"Bekka, get away from him!" Rebecca rolled her eyes before she and Remy turned around to see most of the x-men and Oliver walking towards them.

Rebecca stood her ground; she impatiently waited for her brother to approach her first. No doubt in her mind that he was the one that called them

"Why should I?" she asked with hands on her hips. Remy stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders.

"Because Rogue warned you about talking to this wanker!" Betsy yelled. She usually liked Rebecca when she wasn't stealing her clothes or jewelry, but right now she wanted to slap the girl silly for trusting Remy.

"I'm her pere, Bets. I'm not going to hurt my own kid." Remy calmly reasoned.

"First time for anything, luv."

Rebecca put a hand on her father's chest to stop him from attacking Betsy. Sam was cracking his knuckles in annoyance, "What are yah doin' with him Bekka?"

"We're just talkin'."

"Well you can talk inside." Piotr eyes never left Remy's, he was already armored up and ready to take down the Cajun. Sam stepped up next, "Get back inside Bekka, now."

"Yoah not mah dad, Sam." Rebecca snapped, didn't anyone understand that she just wanted to talk to her father without getting dirty looks around the mansion.

Oliver watched as Sam swallowed the hurt, the insult had stung deep. Sam had taken care and watched them grow up. Even after all this, it angered him to know that his sister's loyalty were with a man she barely knew. He was about to respond but stopped when he heard around of applause come from the sky.

Their hovering above them was Sunfire, Vertigo, Riptide, Blockbuster, Harpoon, Prism, and Scalphunter. "That was such a touching scene, really." Vertigo oozed faux sincerity, she dabbed an imaginary tissue under her eye. "When's the climax?" she then lightly smacked her forehead, "Oh, I forgot. It starts now." She faced her teammates "Take them."

Sunfire made a dive for Oliver. He grabbed him, pinning the young boy's arms by his side. "You are the one with my powers? Let us see how much Rogue has taught you." Oliver transformed to his fiery form and flew into the sky with Sunfire still holding on to him.

"I am sorry, but you will have to try better than this." Sunfire let go of him and punched him square in the face since their fire attacks wouldn't work on each other. The punch to the head left Oliver dizzy but he shook it off and charged at the older man. Sunfire dodged him and grabbed him from behind, pulling him into a head lock.

"Let me go y'freakin' traitor!" Oliver struggled to break the hold Sunfire had on him, but the other man had a good leverage on him. "You might want to be nicer to your elders." Sunfire jammed a power neutralizer dart into the young boy's neck. Oliver could feel his powers slipping away, the drug was making him feel weak and tired. Sunfire felt the boy go limp; satisfied he yelled down to teammates "I have one of them!"

"OLIVER!" Sam yelled helplessly as he watched Sunfire take him inside the portal, he was about to rocket towards them but something was pulling him back. "Where you going Corn poke?" Prism asked, he didn't wait for Sam to answer him. He punched him in the face, he glass fist cutting deep into Southerner's face.

"Hello little girl." Rebecca felt someone grab her wrist and pick her up two feet of the ground. She came face to face with Harpoon. "If you come with us quietly, we promise we won't hurt your little friends." He smile was perverted. "I bet." Rebecca kicked him in the chest; the kick was so strong that it flew Harpoon into the fountain in front of the school.

She could see Vertigo coming at her, with a tranquilizer in hand. "Yah do know my skin is invulnerable to that, right?"

Vertigo smiled, "I know, I was just waiting for him." She pointed at someone behind the girl

"Who?"

Riptide snaked his body around Rebecca so that she wouldn't be able to escape, "You may be invulnerable to needles girl, but not to scents." He covered her mouth with a rag soaked with chloroform. Rebecca tried not to inhale, but Riptide was covering her nose and mouth. Soon the smell hit her and she was knocked out.

"Oh, God!" Emma felt someone hit her head from the back; she went down face first into the ground.

"This is really sad; I expected more from the _amazing_ x-men." Vertigo teased, she pulled out a few grenades. The x-men watch in horror as she pulled the pin and threw it.

------**Now in the Front yard-------**

Scott, Rogue, Jamie, and Bobby ran to their injured friends. "Scott, something's wrong."

"Geez, you think!?" he checked over Emma, her arm was out of its socket and she had a large bump on the back of her head.

Bobby picked up an unconscious X-23 to show Scott, "She's bleeding." Scott could see a couple of gashes on her arms and face with blood dripping out. She should have healed by now.

"Power neutralizer." Scott looked around; no wonder they were beaten up so badly. Rogue pulled Sam into her lap. The cuts on his face were swelling and his lips was busted open.

"R-Rogue…" Sam groaned, Rogue stroked her finger through his hair. "Shh, try to lay still. We'll get yah help, Sugah." Sam gritted his teeth, the pain in his jaw was excruciating. "Marauders took Bekka and Oli. We couldn't save them."

Rogue could feel an imaginary stake piercing her heart; her brain reeled with the image of Sinister now having her children in his custody.

Jamie went over to Betsy who was severely injured as well. Her forehead at a huge cut, covering her face and part of her hair with her own blood, Jamie could see that something was sticking out from her side.

"Don't worry Psy. We'll get you as good as new."

"Jamie…Gambit, he went with them." She whispered before her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Jamie swore underneath his breath as he picked her up. Rogue was going to have a mental break down.

------**Sinister's hideout**-----------

Rebecca finally gave up on telepathically contacting the x-men. "I can't get through anyone."

Oliver slumped back against glass dome wall; he was sick and tired of feeling like a fish in a bowl. " You s'prised Bekka? If you kidnap someone, you're gonna make sure they can't call for help."

When Oliver and Rebecca finally came too it they didn't know how long they had been held in the cold and damp cramped cell. They tried using their powers but were told by the guards that they were under a power damper.

"Damn mutant freaks." The armored guard cursed when they saw Oliver's eyes. Oliver looked at them in confusion, "Y'all aren't mutants?" Sinister was hiring homo-sapiens now?

One of the guards lifted his visor, revealing cold gray eyes. "Hell no." The guards went out to secure the entrance to the prison ignoring Oliver's calls. Oliver repeatedly banged on the glass, "Then why do y' work for Sinister?" The guards ignored him. "ANSWER ME."

Oliver turned to his sister who was repeatedly banging the back of her head on the wall. '_Well, this is gonna be interesting_.'

-------**Xavier's Mansion**-----

Elixir had been able to heal everyone. But that didn't really fill Cyclops with confidence in Rogue's team.

"Scott, Ah aint tellin' yah again. We're going and that's that!" she shouted in his face. Bobby and Sam were behind her, they too agreed that they were ready to go and fight. Scott and Rogue had been fighting in front of everyone in the foyer for the last half hour.

Scott massaged his forehead, "Rogue, you do realize that you are missing half of your team right?" He pointed over at the two men behind her. "The Marauders were able to beat on seven of our teammates; you think that you can win with just three?"

"She's still got us one-eye." Sabretooth growled with his claws glistening under the light shinning through the windows. Cable nodded in agreement with him.

"Big whoop, two more people." He snapped at the both of them.

"I still don't believe it." Castle mused out loud after Scott and Jamie told him about Remy's meetings with Sinister. "There's no way that he could do this."

Logan eyed the man, "You said it yourself bub. You let the guys go off on their own. The Cajun could have been planning this all along under your nose."

Castle and the rest of Remy's friend stood up in his defense "We know him better then this. No way that he would do this to his own kids."

Laura leaned back against the steps, "You honestly think you know him? The man has helped kill innocent people. I wouldn't put it pass him to hurt his own kids."

Johnny stepped up, he had stayed quiet through out the bickering, but he wasn't going to listen to this. "Believe me, if Remy was evil I would be the first one to ring his neck. Trust me; he wouldn't harm anyone unless they deserved it."

The comment eased Rogue for a bit, though she couldn't help but wonder would Gambit hurt her kids to harm her.

_Rogue looked at him through peered eyes, hands on her hips. "What do Ah have tah worrah about?" _

_Remy walked right up to her, close enough that barely an inch stood between them. "Lots of t'ings."_

"We're wasting time here." She turned around to her team "Let's go." Scott quickly grabbed hold on her arm.

"We're coming too."

Rogue pulled her arm back in disgust, "There's no way Ah'm letting the Astonishing team come on this mission, Scott. This is a Adjectiveless mission _only,_ so butt out." She looked behind him to see Emma, Piotr, Kitty, Beast, and Logan all look at her as if she was crazy to deny their help.

"Rogue, either we're going or you can resign from your post as leader." Scott warned her, his eyes glowing red behind his visors.

Rogue sucked in her cheeks, "Fine, let's just go." Before the team could get out they were stopped once again.

"We're coming too." Blade told them, the other men were getting ready to leave. "This isn't a field trip Blade." Logan growled, unleashing his claws.

Blade paid no attention to the small man, "He's our brother, Howlett. We're coming, like it or not."

Rogue was getting real tired of this, "Just let them come Wolverine."

They were ready to leave again but the new x-men stood in their way to the door. "Oh, no. You all are not coming." Scott warned him.

TJ smiled "Why not? We're just gonna sneak on the jet anyway if you say no." She shrugged. Kendall dropped her arms to her sides, "Oliver and Bekka are on _my_ team, and we're family. If they're in trouble then we're going." Kendall reasoned with him.

Rogue didn't want to argue, she pointed a finger at the young girl, "Fine, y'all can come. But y'all are gonna stay in the jet, if we get into trouble you all call the other's foah backup."

The new x-men ran out the door, followed by the others. Rogue called to the rest of the x-men who were staying back, "See if y'all can get Nightcrawler, Storm and the rest to come. We're gonna need all the help we can get to finish this damn fool once and for all." She slammed the door behind her.

Ten minutes later the four groups were on their way to DC.

-------**Sinister's Hideout**--------

"In you go freak." The guards gloated as they threw Remy into the prison dome. Oliver dodged just to avoid getting crushed by Remy.

"We're not supposed to hurt them, Hunter." one of the guards warned his teammate. Hunter took out a stun gun from his holster, "Always wondered if they felt any pain." He pressed the button on the gun, watching the electric current buzz with glee. "Hunter, there're security cameras all over, if Sinister see us hurting them. We're dead." Hunter reluctantly turned the gun off and followed the other guards out complaining about having no fun.

Oliver kneeled down next to Remy, "Y'okay?" Remy groaned as he picked himself up, he hit his head rather hard. "I'm fine." He told him, surprised at the caring tone coming from his son. Oliver stood up as well, "Too bad." He sneered before he punched Remy square in the face.

"Oli!" Rebecca pulled her brother away from their dad, "Y're probably spying for Sinister, mom told me about you and him!" Oliver yelled, Rebecca was having a hard time holding him back without her powers.

Remy massaged his jaw; the kid had his mother's left hook, not to mention her temper. "Let him go, Bekka." She did so, but still stood between them just in case. "It's true dat I did help Sinister. But I owe de man."

"For what?"

Remy sunk to the ground; he cradled his head in his hands. He didn't want anyone to know. But when he looked at his children he could see the hope in their eyes, they didn't want him to truly evil.

"Before I joined de x-men or even Mageto." Rebecca and Oliver shook at the name, so their mother wasn't lying about that.

""I went to Sinister t'help me wid my powers. I used to get dese terrible headache dat would make me lose control."

Oliver started to play an imaginary violin "How sad." He stuffed his fists in his pockets "Do we got t'listen to this sob story?" Rebecca shushed him.

"I went t'Sinister to get help. He said dat cash payment wouldn't be enough, I tol' him dat I was willing t'do anyt'ing. We made a deal, he would perform the surgery and I would help him steal some science equipment."

Rebecca shook her head, "I don't get it. That happened so long ago. Why is he still asking yah for things?"

Oliver pulled his sister back when Remy started to get up, his powers might be gone in the dome but Oliver still didn't trust him.

"I kept going back; he was de only one dat would help wid out questioning. Look, y'two probably don't have a reason t'trust moi. Mais, I wouldn't let him hurt you. I'm not like dat."

"Lordy, y'think? Yah yelped kill people. What makes yah think that we'll look past that?"

"I wouldn't let him hurt y'two." Remy replied convincingly, slowly walking towards his son. Oliver dead eyed him while taking a few steps back until his back hit the wall, "Yeah? Yah weren't putting up much of a fight back at the mansion. Yah could of blown them up if y'wanted too."

Remy growled at his son's stupidity, he wasn't getting it yet. "Better than laying dead wid de ot'er, at least y'have someone t'protect you while you're here."

"Protect us? You have no powers in here!" he banged his fists back on the glass to emphasize.

While the two fought Rebecca was watching the power damper, if only they could get to that stupid thing.

"WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP!?" she screamed, their argument was getting louder by the second.

_**Fifteen minutes later…**_

"WE NEED HELP! MY SISTER'S NOT BREATHING!" Oliver yelled banging his fist on the glass to get the guards attention.

"What the hell?" four guards walked in, inside the glass prison was Remy kneeled next to Rebecca. She was bleeding from her nose and mouth.

"Dear God! If Sinister see this we're going to get it." They lowered the domes walls to get her. Oliver was beside himself, "She-she ran between us." Remy stuttered. The guards shoved him aside trying to get her. "Stupid little girl. We have to work on her here."

"We have to secure the containment first." Another guard brought in a portable defribulater. "Before it's too late."

Rebecca opened her eyes and smirked at the shocked guards. "It's too late."

Oliver flipped two of the guards onto their backs; he pulled out their guns from their holsters and fired at the power damper. The bullets fried the machine; Remy could feel his powers return. He threw a bunch of small charged knives at the surveillance cameras while Rebecca took down the guards. She grabbed a guard by his uniform, "Stupid little girl huh?" she punched him in the head, shattering the helmet. The guard yelled in pain as the pieces of the helmet got into his eyes. Remy was able to finish off the last two guards, he crushed their skulls together and let them drop to the floor. "Time to go."

He and the kids made a break for it. "Nice job by de way, Beks. I'm impressed." He complimented his daughter who was wiping the blood from her face with her t-shirt. Olive was impressed as well, "Nice job for taking one for the team." Rebecca flicked her brother's head, "You owe me." She said darkly, her brother had to really punch her in the face to make the emergency look real.

The halls were dark, none of them could see where they were headed. "Hey Oli, a little light S'il Vous Plait?" Oliver flamed up, the halls had no signs and all the doors revealed nothing. "We don't even know how long we've been down here; there're no windows or anything."

"You getting scared dear brother?" She smirked. Oliver was ready to retort when Remy stopped them, "Y'guys can argue later." They continued to walk; Remy didn't recognize any of the hallways. Something was defiantly wrong, he knew the place. Why couldn't he find the exit?

"Bleh! What's that smell?" Oliver and Rebecca covered their mouth and nose with their hands to block out the rotting order. Remy was choking as he pulled his shirt to cover his mouth and nos. It smelled so familiar to him, like…death. "It's coming from there." Rebecca pointed at a door. She pulled the door of its hinges and threw it away. The smell doubled in strength.

Once when they saw what was behind the door they froze. Oliver and Rebecca could feel the wind being knocked out of them. "_Oh my God_!"

There on the dirty cold floor were the x-men, new x-men and Remy's friends. All dead. Even Wolverine, who had been cut into two, his blood and organs were spilling out of him. The skin on his face was hang off, "How did they-he?" Remy couldn't finish his sentence once he spotted Blade nailed to the wall, three wooden stakes where going through his head, neck, and chest. Remy couldn't hold it in anymore, he threw up, all of his brothers were dead.

"Power neutralizer, they couldn't use their powers at all." Rebecca explained horrified as she stroked Sam's cheek. His skull was crushed in, and his legs were pointing in the wrong direction. Next to him was Sarah, Remy could feel the tears ready to fall, they had pulled all the spikes from her body, leaving her in a bloody state. She also had a bullet wounds in the side of her head. "S-Sarah." He gulped down the anger that was beginning to grow inside his chest. Sinister had killed his daughter, the one person he promised to protect forever.

"MOM!" Oliver and Rebecca ran to their mother once they spotted her. Her uniform was soaked in blood; some one had stabbed her and dragged the knife through her body. They had snapped her neck too; just too make sure she was truly dead.

Remy looked at the others: some had their throat sliced open, other's had their neck snapped, or were stabbed. The new x-men were shot in the head multiple times.

Rebecca couldn't control her tears, "Come on, mama. Please wake up. Please" She begged tapping the side of Rogue's face gently. Oliver couldn't breathe; his mother's green eyes were wide and empty.

Remy kneeled down next to her, he was about to pick up her hand when Oliver stopped him. Something inside the young boy exploded, he flew Remy in the wall. "This is your fault; if y'never came my family wouldn't be dead right now!" yelling while choking Remy with his flame engulfed hands. Remy could feel his skin start to burn and blister. He looked into his son's red on black eyes; there was no mercy, "I-I had nothin' t'do wid dis!" He could feel his clothes melting and sticking onto his skin. "Yeah, right." Oliver was determine to kill him.

Rebecca couldn't hear Remy's cry of pain, nor could she see her brother's doing. All she could see was right in front of her: Her mother dead in cold blood.

"Please, please don't leave me." She begged crying, she hugged her mother close. She could feel Rogue's blood soak into her shirt. "Please, I take it back." She was having a break down; she looked at the other dead x-men. They were all gone; she was never going to hear Bobby's stupid little jokes, smell the scent of Logan's stinky cigars, or see Kitty having a hard time in the kitchen ever again. The people who she loved the most were gone. She took in a deep breath, the cold and rotten air made her lungs tighten. Looking around at the bodies surrounding her; they were covered in so much blood. But the more she looked around the more she noticed something was off. She stood up, wiping the tears away and smearing blood on her face. Something was wrong with this scene. Rebecca focused her telepathic powers, she could sense something, or rather someone with them.

That person was enjoying their pain.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

**refers to Gambit and Wolverine-Victims series.**

**refers to a Romy scene from x-men #8. **

**x-men supernovas. **

** Sara or Serefina, a villain in x-men supernovas, who made Sam think that he was married and in love with her.**

** refers to Charlie from AOA and/or Magnus from Exiles.**

**So, what did you like about the chapter, what didn't you like, besides the mass murder of our favorite heroes and the length of the chapter? I loved the reviews for ch5, all of your opinions were great, and helped me a lot when I wrote this chapter. **

**Thank you everyone and happy holidays and New Year. :-)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Its tons shorter, trust me…**

_Two hours ago on the Black Bird…_

Logan chuckled as he watched Bobby and Bishop listen intently through the doors of the jet, on the other side of the door were Scott and Rogue. Arguing loudly.

"Who's winning?"

"It's eight to six." Bobby grinned; Rogue was managing to top Scott in the argument. Bishop flinched, "I think Summers got two points for bringing that subject up."

Scott hung his head down in shame, not quite believing what he had just said that to Rogue. After a few seconds he finally looked up at her, "I didn't mean it that way, you know that."

Rogue pursed her lip, letting the words sink in.

_If you hadn't kept your damn mouth shut so long your kids would still be here_

"Had to come from somewhere Scott." Rogue licked her lips and crossed her arms over her chest. "Mah point is though, if we're gonna go up against Sinister then we _have_ tah take him down."

Scott sunk down into one of the chairs, massaging the bridge of his nose. "That's not how the X-men work Rogue. X-men don't _kill_."

"And look how that turned out." Her voice was filled with malice. "Mah team killed Bastion, Vargas, Palance, the Children of the Vault, and a lot more." She ticked them off on her fingers.

"We can't just fight them and hope they get the point Scott. We have to destroy Sinister once and foah all this time."

Scott drummed his fingers against the chair's arms, taking in her little speech. He knew she was right.

But with Sinister it was a whole different story.

The man proved to be resilient to attacks, how could they take him down?

"You know what this means right? What this could mean?" Scott asked her.

Rogue's green eyes filled with tears for a moment, but then a look of pure determination appeared next. She put on her hood, ready for what was going to come next.

"Yeah, Ah know."

_Present time-Sinister's HQ…_

"Oli!" Bekka pulled her brother of off Gambit. "Stop it!"

But the young boy wasn't listening; he was determined to kill the man that killed his family.

Bekka grabbed a hold off his shirt before he had another chance to jump on Gambit again. She clasped her hand around his face, trying to calm him down.

"OLIVER! Listen to me!" she begged, wondering if this could really work.

'_Someone's with us.' _

Oliver's face twisted in disgust, "What are you talkin' about?"

'_Someone's in this room with us, this could be just a trick.'_

Bekka could see the red burn in her brother's eyes. He looked back at Gambit and then to his sister, "Y'better be right about this."

He focused on the room, and then he felt it, a little tug of joy and happiness. Oliver never once in life used his powers against another human or mutant unless he was in a danger room session, but today was an exception.

"SON OF A BITCH!" a female voice screamed in pain as flames engulfed her whole body. The woman screeched and swore as the flames started to burn her hair, skin, and uniform.

As soon as the woman collapsed Oliver let the flames die down. Around them the bodies of the X-men, New X-men, and Gambit's teammates started to disappear.

Rebecca kneeled down next to the woman, turning her over so she could see her properly. "It's Regan." She got up, not an ounce of guilt that a former x-men was now dead.

Oliver cracked his knuckles, "Figures." He looked back at Gambit, his face, chest, and arms were covered in burns. But to his luck, they weren't as severe as Regan's. His favorite trench coat was now in a wreck.

Gambit peeled the coat in pain, some of the clothe had glued to his skin. "Does she know where Sinister is?" he asked.

Bekka nodded, "Yeah, good news is the X-men aren't here yet."

Oliver muttered under his breath about none of this being good.

"We have to keep moving; there's gotta be way out of here." Oliver told them. Gambit cleared his throat, by now his skin was starting to blister and bleed.

Oliver looked at him unapologetically, "If y'know the way out, then y' better help." He barked at his father.

"Oliver!" Rebecca couldn't believe his audacity; he had to know that Gambit was innocent. Why did he have to be stubborn?

Gambit gave his son a dirty look, "Oui, I know de way from here." He started to lead them down the corridors in silence.

After about ten minutes of walking without a word, Bekka decided to ask the one question that was bothering her.

"Why does Sinister want you so bad, Dad?"

Oliver flinched at her calling him 'dad'.

"Sinister and I…we go back, guess he thought we made a good team or something." Gambit quietly said, not even looking back at Oliver and Bekka.

Bekka watched her brother and father for a moment before it hit her.

"Yah know yah do have eyes like Sinister."

Oliver stopped dead in his tracks realizing for the first time that she was right. His and Gambit's eyes were similar to Sinister's, but that didn't mean much…

He hoped…

The dark hall ways seemed to be going on for miles, he noticed there were no doors, windows, or security cameras.

"How close are we to getting out?"

"Who says you're getting out?"

Bright blinding white light shined down on the three, from what they could see they recognized Frenzy, Archlight, Riptide, and Sinister.

Sinister looked like a kid at Christmas morning.

"Glad you could join us Remy." The white faced man smiled, "I wasn't so sure at first that you would be willing to help. Glad you changed your mind"

If Oliver could have found Gambit he would have surely killed him. But with the light still blinding them all he could do was swear out the Cajun.

Little air valves from the ceiling and the sides released knockout gas, in seconds the three were on the ground.

As soon as the air dissipated three of Sinister's henchman went to pick them up, as they carried them into another room Sinister stopped Riptide to look at Oliver.

He tilted the boy's face to get a better look.

"Looks just like Grandpa." He smiled before letting Riptide carry him in.

A few hours later Oliver started to stir awake, as soon as he opened his eyes he knew where he was.

In deep trouble.

His arms and legs were strapped to the wall, and his hands were covered in flame resisted material.

He swore out loudly.

"That's what I was thinking." His sister told him from her side, she too was strapped to the wall.

"Where the hell are we?"

"Right at home kiddies." Said a very giddy Malice, "Ohh, this is so going to be worth it, always wanted to see what would make Rogue break. Her kids were always her weak spot." She pinched Oliver's cheek hard, making the spot turn bright red.

"Your mother was nothing but a cowardly hum drum harlot, did you know that darling?" Malice cooed at him.

Oliver couldn't care less that Malice was using Karima's body, he spat in her face. The spit slid down disgustingly down Malice's nose and cheek. "Why you little piece of-!" she raised her hand but someone caught it.

"You touch them Malice, and I'll make sure that your life is miserable from here on out." Scalphunter warned her. Oliver held back his fear, he remembered Bobby telling him about Scalphunter and his bloody attacks on the Morlocks.

"Pfft, you think I'm afraid of you?" Malice asked in a girly tone, she had her hand right on the handle of her knife, but Scalphunter squeezed her hand tightly. The kids could hear her whimper, "You should be." He warned his eyes dark and haunting.

Scalphunter looked back at the kids, "You two are in for a special surprise. Looks who came to join the party."

The door to the room slid open and in stepped a tall man, with dark brown hair and eyes. His smile, it was so cold and ugly, that both of the kids fear tenfold. Who knew a smile could be that demented looking?

There was something disturbing about the man, why did he look so familiar to them? Then it hit them.

Hard.

"Sinister?!"

Sinister laughed, his normal laughed sounded so human, and it was amazing in an odd bizarre way.

"'Sinister'? That name always held a soft spot for me when others would call me that." For a just a minute something changed in the man's face, a nurturing look took the place of his former look.

"But for you kids, just 'Grandpa' will suffice." Nathan smiled.

Bekka looked at her brother, his face was burning red. Oliver let out a slew of swear words, Scalphunter was about to advance towards him, but Nathan stopped him with a wave of his hand.

Nathan chuckled, "What a mouth must have gotten that from your mother. That harlot never did know when to shut her mouth."

"You son of a bitch!" Oliver cussed at him again. His fought against his holds, but it was pointless.

"No, my dear boy that would be you." Nathan smiled again, "But for now lets not get into semantics. I brought you here today for one reason." He paused for a dramatic affect "To share the future with you."

Oliver and Bekka looked at each other, both thinking the same thing.

_This man is way off his freaking rocker_.

Nathan saw the doubt on their faces, "Mutants are at the height of their dominance, but what's to stop us from becoming more? From eradicating those _humans _before they eradicate _us_?"

He got very close to their face, "I'm a willing for you two become my pride and joy, by becoming the leaders of a new more powerful mutant species."

Oliver sucked in his cheeks, "In other words you want us to become your guinea pigs?"

Nathan smiled and tousled Oliver's hair, "Clever, like your father."

"I'm _nothing_ like my father, and you're a fucking liar." Oliver hissed.

Nathan's smile started to wilt a bit, "You might have your mother's hair and her temper, but you are in everyway like your father. "

Oliver was about to snap back when the door opened again, this time Remy walked in, looking defeated and tired. He didn't look at his kids, but just silently stood by Nathan who put his arms around him in a fatherly way.

"I don't get it," Bekka spoke up, her face scrunched in curiosity, "How are _you _related to the Summers? Mom and Scott said that you were his brother." She asked her father.

Nathan's eyes started to change again, back to black on red. "Simple, Kate and I were together in a way you children will never understand." The look on Nathan's face looked to be a face of pure love, but his eyes said something a little more…sinister like. It took a minute for the kid to realize what he meant.

"You raped her, didn't you?" Oliver whispered, he could feel his stomach churning in disgust, his grandmother was raped by this psycho path just because he wanted an heir.

Nathan didn't answer him, but just continued to smirk. Oliver looked back at Remy, whose whole body was shaking in anger. His eyes were crackling in anger, his jaw was clenched, and his fists were turning white.

"To get what you want, my boy, certain things must be done in order to achieve them." Nathan explained slowly turning back into Sinister.

"You're sicko." Bekka growled with tears in her eyes.

"A 'sicko' who is trying to save you, trying to create a better future for you. So I expect you to thank me."  
"Thank you and Gambit? Not a chance." Oliver growled as he continued to try and break the bonds that were holding him.

"Gambit?" Sinister laughed as he patted his son on his back, "Gambit really didn't have a choice in matter, but he now has seen what has to be done in order to protect our future. Don't you, son?"

Gambit only shook his head 'yes' still not looking at his kids.

"So Oliver and Rebecca, get ready. Your future awaits you." Sinister bowed down as Riptide and Vertigo unveiled a huge machine.

Four large cylinders were connected to large pipes that were holding a lime green liquid at bay. They could see the liquid bubble and ooze and it smelled like sulfur and .

"Here's a little history lesson for you kids, when I was working at Auschwitz, Dr. Josef Mengele and I created a wonderful concoction that allowed us to mutate the genes of people we deemed fit. Splice in anything your heart desired, whether tiger DNA or what not, but the point is we found gold. Now I found way to strengthen our DNA with it, all the control and power you have ever wanted is right here." He gave a solemn pat to the machine.

Malice started to past around small oxygen mask around to everyone. "Once you two have been dealt with then the rest will be easy."

"Why the mask?" Gambit asked he strapped on his. Karima shrugged, "Gives off radiation, breath it and you're a gonner."

As soon as Sinister let the straps go Random threw them into the cylinder. Oliver and Bekka banged on the glass, but it pointless. They were done for.

"Make your peace children. For the time of mutant supremacy has come." Sinister eye's were glowing, finally his plans were coming together. Nothing was going to ruin this moment.

He turned to Sunfire, "Turn it on."

The liquid started to bubble more, but of instead of filling the cylinder it stayed put. Sunfire looked on bewildered, "I don't know what-what…" his face started to turn pale, his eyes were bugging out of their sockets.

Oliver and Bekka looked at the Marauders, they were all starting to wheeze and gasp. They struggled to take the masks off, but some of them were already in a dead faint. Gambit took off his mask and stood above a struggling Sinister, "Funny t'ing happens when y'breathe in mustard gas." Sinister could barely see anything, his whole face and hands were puffy. Gambit kneeled down and grabbed the man by his hair, "Never mess wid my kids, got dat?" he slammed Sinister's face to the ground.

_BOOM! _

The whole left wall of the lab came crashing in.

"OLIVER. REBECCA!" Rogue and Wolverine ran to them to get them out of their prison.

"Mom!" Both Bekka and Oliver hugged her tightly. Rogue and the team didn't look any worse for the wear. They had gone through the barricades and traps Sinister had placed in front of his head quarters.

"Yah guys alright?" Sam asked while trying to look over Bekka, who now was hugging him.

"We're fine, Gambit saved us." Oliver told them, that name was starting to leave a sour taste in his mouth.

Sam and Rogue looked him as if he had sprouted four heads.

All over the lab the x-men were battling the marauders. Sinister finally got up, staggering a bit as he did, blood from his nose and busted lips was dribbling down his front. He became deadlocked on Gambit.

"You destroyed everything!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. From inside his uniform he pulled out a small remote and pressed a button.

From the floors rose 20 steel chambers, they opened and unleashed black smoke and…more marauder clones.

"The future can not be stopped." He grinned savagely. The blood stains on his teeth made him look like something from a nightmare.

"MARAUDERS! KILL THE X-MEN!" Sinister ordered, the clones snapped the head up and ran towards each X-men.

"EMMA, WATCH OUT!" Cyclops yelled to his wife as three of the marauders took her by surprise. Sabretooth, with one swipe, cut off their heads.

Emma only looked at the feral man in surprise and disgust as he leaked of the blood from his hand.

"Never did like them." He smirked.

Iceman was able to distract Sunfire and Prism long enough for Blade to take them out. "Good job, Ice."

Iceman only gave him a thumbs-up before getting shot in the shoulder.

"BOBBY!" Sam shouted as he ran to his friend's side. Sam looked up to see conscious Mystique with a small revolver, the Southerner was about to advance on her when Bobby stopped him.

"I'll do it." Bobby winced as he held his shoulder, his usually warm and jovial eyes turned hard as he looked upon the woman who had caused his heart pain and turmoil.

"C'mon, Raven. Can we not-" She shot him again, this time in the stomach.

"So that's how it's gonna be, huh?" he gasped, he could feel his ice body trying to mend the damages.

Mystique gave him a small flirtatious smile, "It was always like this my young Drake. You just fell too hard in lust to see it." She cocked her gun again.

That's when she noticed it, small patches of ice started to form on her arm, "What are you doing?!"

"What has to be done." Bobby watched on without a signal amount of remorse on his face as Mystique was trapped in thick casing of ice.

He went up to her, brushing his fingers against the ice prison.

"Luck."

Gambit was about ready to blow up Sinister's computer when a bullet dug into his arm. "MERDE!" he hissed as blood started to pour down his arm.

He turned around to face Sinister hold the gun. "Thought I would be that easy to get rid of son?" He fired again, shooting Gambit right in the leg.

Sinister walked over to him and grabbed him by the face, his nails digging in hard into Gambit's face "You destroyed EVERYTHING!" He pushed Gambit over like a rag doll.

"All that planning to bring you into this world, you really are a bitter disappointment to me." Sinister held the gun over Gambit's body, ready for the last and final fatal blow.

_FOOSH_

A mixture of laser beams and fire rammed straight for Sinister throwing him into the wall.

Cyclops and Oliver stood side by side behind where Sinister stood, "Man, that guy was annoyin'."

"You okay?" Cyclops asked helping Gambit up to his feet.

"Never t'ought I would be happy t'see one-eye in mon entire life." Gambit quipped in pain. Cyclops supported him as he tried to stand on his own, "Last time I checked, you were still my brother."

Oliver bit the inside of his cheeks, "Y'got nothin' to say t'me?" Gambit asked, snapping the young boy out his daze.

"I owed yah, consider us even."

Oliver's eyes widened and started to roll to the back of his head.

"Oli?!" Scott barely caught the young boy before he was able to hit ground. Both men could see on the back of Oliver's neck was a tranquilizer dart.

"You two aren't going anywhere." Frenzy threatened, reloading her gun again.

As Rogue looked around, it hit her. This was never going to end. Unless she got rid of Sinister.

'_Rogue, NO_!' Emma warned her as she picked onto what Rogue was thinking.

'_If yah got any bettah ideas, Ah would_ love _tah hear 'em now_.' Rogue didn't let Emma reply, "_Get_ _everyone out of here_."

Sinister could see his skin turning normal without his consent; he could see all of his marauders starting to lose his powers.

He spotted Rogue using her borrowed powers against him, "YOU!?"

He tried to move, all of his marauders, tried to move but they were all stuck.

"Rogue, what are you doing?!" Scott asked, Rogue's eyes were glued to the ground. "Ending this."

She knew what to do; she knew whose power to use to defeat Sinister once and for the all.

The whole head quarters started to turn pink, a low hissing noise filled the room as Rogue continued to charge the whole building.

"Get everyone out!" Scott ordered, he turned back to Rogue. "You can't do this." Scott tried to plead with her. But it was no use.

"This is the onlah way."

"And what about your kids!?"

Rogue's eyes filled with tears, but she didn't look up to face Scott. She knew what this meant, they both did. If she could stop Sinister now, then her kids and all of mutant kind would be safe.

"Get 'em out of here, Summers" she growled. Everyone (X-men and Gambit's crew) were running out of danger's way.

Sam had Oliver in his arms, "Rogue?" He could feel something catch in his throat. He didn't want it to end like this.

"Sam, just go!" Rogue ordered

Sam bit his lip hard and shifted Oliver a bit. "Ah love yah." Sam told her, he wanted to hug and kiss on last time.

Rogue only gave him a sad smile, "Ah love yah too."

Gambit was the last person to face her. "Rogue, I-" She cut him off with a look, Gambit could feel his heart break again. Her eyes were soaked in tears, her face blotchy and red, her whole body was shaking in pure anger and fear. "Just take care of _our_ kids, Remy."

"Rogue-?"

Wolverine grabbed Gambit, "C'mon Cajun, leave her be."

As soon as Rogue knew they were all gone, she released her hold on Sinister and his crew.

"You wouldn't." Sinister sneered "You'll kill us all!" For the first time he was scared. Everything he had worked for and on was right here. And this crazy southerner was about to ruin it all.

Rogue smirked, the fear in her eyes were now replaced with revenge. She looked so cold and lifeless. She let go and stood up. The hissing noise soon grew louder; it was only matter of seconds.

"Ah'll see yah in hell."

From the black bird a few of the X-men watched as the whole headquarters blew up. As the dust settled, gasps could be heard through out the jet as they saw the crater where Sinister's headquarters once was.

Scott looked back at Emma, but she already knew what he was going to ask. The only answer Scott got back from her was a few tear drops cascading down her cheeks as she shook her head 'no'.

From the back of the jet, Gambit checked on his kids, both of whom had been knocked out conscious from the tranquilizer darts.

How was he going to tell them?

**--**

**(Last chapter coming up)**

**Thank everyone.**


	8. Chapter 8

_Thanks that was fun.  
Don't forget, no regrets, except maybe on__e  
Made a deal, not to feel, God that's dumb  
Everybody knows the deal fell through.  
I was hoping I could just blame you.  
When was it that I became so soft?  
This sentimentality doesn't look good on me.  
I thought that you would be begging to be with me.  
I'm the one on my knees, blubbering,  
Please, let me stay.  
Deflated and jaded. I hate it when you call  
Which isn't at all  
I've spoken, though broken.  
Here's a token of my love_.

"Thanks that was Fun" -Barenaked Ladies

_Two Months Later, Sam's room..._

Bobby knocked softly on Sam's door. Since Rogue's death Sam had tried his best to go on for Oliver and Rebecca. Although he seemed strong for their sake Bobby knew the guy was dying inside.

Bobby let himself in after he got no answer. The windows were wide open, letting the light from the setting sun shine through. If anyone hadn't seen Sam in the past two months they wouldn't recognize him. The twenty four year old looked old. His dark blond stubble was now a full beard, his blue eyes were now sunken in, and he looked over worked.

Sam was sitting on the bed, hunched over and tightly clutching a small burgundy velvet box in his hand. He always did that. Bobby could only watch as his friend opened the box, sighed, and then shut the box quickly.

"Ah was gonna ask her the night we came back from Mississippi. Ah had everything set and ready." He opened and closed the box again.

"She would have said yes." Bobby rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably, he already lost one of his best friends, and he didn't want to lose another one.

"Too late tah know now, huh?" Sam chocked. He opened the box again, he always imagined Rogue and him getting married and maybe moving back South again. They always talked about it. Now he was wishing that they had actually done it.

"It's never gonna go away? Isn't it?" Sam mumbled. Bobby's eyes widened in fear and forced his friend to stand up. After Rogue's death Sam had gone through a major case of denial.

Bobby shook the blond by his shoulder, trying to snap some sense into him. "Hey! We've talked about this, remember?"

Sam only hung his head down in misery.

Bobby gave him a tiny shove towards the door, "Come on, the X-babies are heading off for their first mission."

_Mansion's Patio…_

Remy could feel the tears sting his eyes as he watched his daughter kneel in front of Rogue's tomb stone. Everyday he would watch Rebecca lay white lilies on the ground before talking to Rogue.

He would never forget the look in their faces when he had to explain what happened. How could he forget Rebecca crying? Her eyes, so much like Rogue's eyes, were blood shot for days. For days the young girl locked herself in her room, the times when she would leave her room to use the bathroom or grab something to eat. She looked so hollow and empty during the day of Rogue's funeral service.

"Rachel was like that after Jean died. It like watching them die over and over again. You can't really help them."

Remy turned around to see Scott walking up to him; he leaned against the railing and watched as Rebecca continued to talk to Rogue.

"The first few days after Jean's death…I couldn't talk, couldn't eat, and couldn't sleep. Every night it was the same nightmare, memories of that day that I couldn't forget."

Remy clenched his fists tightly, the blood pounded away towards his head. "How long was it till Emma made you feel better?" Remy asked curtly.

Scott wasn't surprised; he half expected that this would be the reaction from Remy. "It wasn't her, it was never her." He paused, Remy watched as Scott pulled out a gold locket necklace from under his shirt and opened it, revealing a picture of Jean and Scott from when they were younger. Scott had his arm around her waist, while Jean rested her head on his shoulder and her hand against his chest. The picture was beautiful, a picture of pure youth and love.

Remy took the locket and smiled, all he could think of were the younger days of him and Rogue for the past few weeks. Slowly, he handed the locket back to Scott. "Better not let Emma see dat." He smirked, since his staying he had learned the telepathic blond was terribly jealous of anything that had to with Jean Grey.

"About a month after Jean died I had this dream of her on our wedding day." Remy looked down, suddenly the railing looked interesting to him "She was telling me to live. That I shouldn't die with her, that I should learn to live again." Remy pressed his lips together in anguish; he could see Scott's tear drops getting absorbed by the cement rails. Scott looked at the picture again, "It doesn't get better. The memories, whether they are good or bad, never go away. In some ways it's actually a good thing. Gives you _something_ to live for in the end."

Remy only nodded. Both men looked onward toward the cemetery as Rachel pulled a sobbing Rebecca from the graveyard. He patted Remy on the shoulder, "Believe it or not you're actually doing a good job with the kids, Remy. And that's what should be pulling you to live." He cocked his chin towards Rebecca.

"Should be thankful dat she's talking to me." Remy sniffed. Scott patted him on the shoulder again, "We should get going. The kids will be leaving soon."  
"Scott." Remy called out.

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

Scott shrugged, "What are brothers for?" he checked his watch, "Be down in five, K?"

"Sure."

The two men had learned how to trust and rely on each other again. At one point during Remy's early days as an X-man the two were best friends. Since then many things had happened to ruin that friendship, but now they had many things that connected them to each other. It was uncomfortable, but slowly the two were learning how to be friends again.

"You ready?"

Remy jumped, he hadn't realized that he had zoned out again. He had been doing that more and more now.

He hated it.

"Oui. J'st about." He looked at his son and could feel his pride swell. Oliver was in his official X-man uniform. It was dark blue with two red stripes going horizontally across the shoulder and vertically from shoulder to knee. It had a gold X symbol on the chest and gold elbow and knee pads, along with gold and red boots. The uniform was a far cry from Remy's first X-man uniform. Suddenly magenta looked really good.

Oliver could read his father's face. "Yeah, it's dorky." he pulled on the spandex uniform, letting it loudly snap back into place. "But it's official."

"Anna would be proud." Remy used Rogue's real name, it felt good actually. To know and say something that Rogue held so close to her heart for so long.

"Yeah…I know." Oliver had grown to be quieter and reserve in the past few months. He had taken sanctuary in the danger room, taking his anger and aggression out in the danger room. Needless to say the staff had to keep a lot of extinguishers on hand. He would seldom speak to Logan and Sam about how he was doing. It was only recently that Oliver had gotten around to speaking to Remy.

"Ready for your first mission?"

Oliver frowned, he had been questioning his life as an X-men. He knew what the X-men stood for and why they were needed. But to him the price of being an X-man was too much to pay. Oliver wanted to live his life as long as possible. The mass cemetery in front of him proved that being an X-man meant not only sacrificing your time and your goals, but also your future.

"You'll do alright." Remy comforted him. He tried to hug him, but thought better of it.

"Yeah." Oliver checked his watch. "We should get going now. Other wise Kendall will get pissed."

"Oli."

The young man turned around to see Gambit taking off his trench coat. He tossed it at him.

"For luck and all."

Oliver held the coat high in front of him. The coat had been patched up numerous times. The collar was crooked, the sleeves had a few holes, and the hem was frayed.

"Luck?" Oliver questioned him sarcastically as he put the coat on. It fitted him perfectly and, thankfully, made the uniform look less dorky.

Remy was about to say "I'm still here." but it sounded tactless. Instead he just said "It works fine."

"Merci Gambit." And with that Oliver went down to the jet hanger to join the others.

Remy didn't want to lie; it was a bit hurtful when his only son called him Gambit. But he would work on that with Oliver after they came back from their first mission. He had made plans for Oliver and Rebecca to spend time with him in New Orleans after they came back. Part of him was overly excited, another part of him felt guilty that he didn't have Rogue to share this with him.

He looked over at her tomb stone. There standing in front of it was Rogue in her dark green and white uniform, her cape swaying gently by the wind. His eyes were glued to her as he watched her run her fingers over the top of the stone. Even from a distance he knew she was crying.

"Je suis désolé."

As his tears fell the image of Rogue faded.

"Remy?" Storm attentively called out for him, "You better hurry down before the kids leave." She saw him try to wipe away his tears quickly.

"Yeah, I'm coming."

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**Fin**

**Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story as much as I did.**

**Hope everyone has a good New Year. **


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